Coomer denies adultery

Defeated Court Clerk Lewis Coomer's land deals while in public office made him hundreds of thousands of dollars, yet despite monthly take-home pay of $2,100 he bounced check after check while remaining true to his wife throughout the decade-long, on-again off-again estrangement, records allege

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (Nov. 11, 2002) -- Anyone who wonders why public officials hate public records laws needs look no further than Putnam County, Tennessee Chancery Court file No. 2000-269: Patricia Marene Hall Coomer vs. Lewis Fay Coomer.

The file contains documents in the second attempt of Patricia Coomer, an employee with the City of Cookeville, to divorce Lewis Coomer, who held the office of Clerk of Putnam County's circuit and general sessions courts until voters sent him packing earlier this year. See previous divorce complaint (8/10/92)

While Ms. Coomer refrained from accusing the defendant of adultery in the latest batch of documents, which chronicle her attempt to wrest some of the loot from the former public official, records obtained by The Putnam Pit show Lewis Coomer ran a money-losing ranching business in addition to the apartment business whose government telephone account was used to contact.

The Pit has learned that as of February 5, 2002, Lewis Coomer:

§ swore his only income was $2,100 a month, yet he had a $35,000 unsecured loan from Tennessee Bank;

§ owned a $175,000 farm with no debt;

§ had an unsecured note for $35,000 from First Tennessee Bank;

§ is in good health, but needs $50 a month for drugs and medicine;

§ does not admit he has an apartment rental business, although:

· he had $300,000 equity in an apartment on 17th Street in Cookeville;

· he owned outright an apartment worth $375,000 on 3rd Street in Cookeville;

· his advertisements for his apartment rentals were on the Internet;

Here is the list of all the Coomer divorce documents we have obtained and have posted on The Putnam Pit, the Internet’s most complete source of information on Cookeville and Putnam County, Tennessee officials, current or former:

Complaint for divorce –Aug. 23, 2000

Interrogatories propounded to the defendant – Aug. 23, 2000

Plaintiff’s request for production of documents – Aug. 23, 2000

Waiver of service – Aug. 24, 2000

Notice of appearance – Sept. 6, 2000

Answer and counter complaint – Oct. 25, 2000

First set of Interrogatories and request for production of documents – Oct. 25, 2000

Answer to counter complaint – Nov. 13, 2000

Order of interchange – Nov. 20, 2000

Correspondence 01 – Nov. 22, 2000

Correspondence 02 – Dec. 1, 2000

Plaintiff’s response to defendant’s first set of interrogatories and request for production of documents -- December 6, 2000