After a chaotic day on Tuesday, the so called “Lexington Takeover” of Lexington, Mississippi, was dealt two major blows as organizer Ron Durbin of the Guerrilla Publishing YouTube channel was hospitalized while be detained by police and superstar auditor James Freeman apparently left the cause to drive another auditor back to Oklahoma.
The day started with the group going from town to town in the Lexington area, recording in as many “public buildings” as possible and essentially making a circuit of going to each town’s police department and city hall, culminating in a visit to the city’s Mayor’s office.
One such visit happened in Jackson, Mississippi, early in the day. The group tried to enter the police station but were stopped at security due to a rule that requires ID to be shown before entering the building.
Ron Durbin immediately escalated the situation with the police officers manning the security station, reading a sign saying that someone without an ID can be escorted through the building by an officer upon request. He was about to argue that point when he and another auditor inexplicably left the building and decided to go across the street to the city hall.
Upon entering the city hall, Durbin and friend asked the person at the front desk where the mayor’s office was and eventually left a message with the mayor’s assistant to complain about the policy requiring ID to enter the police station.
Durbin then walked into the city council chambers where he encountered a local news crew waiting for the city council meeting that was scheduled to start. A local reporter made small talk with Durbin until Durbin went into his rants and the local reporter said he wasn’t going to play Durbin’s game.
Quickly enraged, Durbin began to berate the man and follow the man through the building, hurling insults at him and saying that he had every right to film him wherever he went. When the man went down a flight of stairs, Ron balked, sending another auditor to follow the man while he left the building and ended the live stream soon after.
Later in the day, now in Pearl, Mississippi, Ron allegedly had a similar encounter with the mayor’s assistant in the mayor’s office. The assistant asked not to be filmed, Ron escalated, and the assistant called the police.
Ron was being detained by the chief of police for suspicion of disturbing the police when he began to suffer chest pains. An ambulance arrived on scene shortly after and Ron was taken to a hospital across county lines.
James Freeman stayed with the police chief, who said that if a judge signed off of a warrant for Ron’s arrest, he’d arrest Ron once Ron was done at the hospital. Ron was admitted to the hospital and there was apparently a police presence at the hospital in case Ron was released.
Freeman and an auditor named Sean, who has been closely associated with Ron, left for Lexington, which was 90 minutes away from the hospital, to go to the city council meeting where the fate of officer Edward Scott Walters employment was to be decided.
The pair were a few minutes away from the meeting when Ron called to summon Sean, who was driving Ron’s truck, back to the hospital. Ron wanted to work on details of finding a bail bondsman as a warrant had been issued for his arrest with bail set at $2,000.00. Sean refused to make the return trip as he would strand Freeman at the meeting.
When the council went into executive session, Freeman, Sean and everyone else in the audience were sent outside to wait until the council reopened to the public. During that time Sean found a bail bondsman who was on site and arranged to hire her for $2,000.00, recording her information to send to Ron.
Freeman and Sean left the meeting when Freeman’s phone began to die, and the pair returned to the hospital. The city council did not announce the fate of Walters at the meeting.
When the pair visited Ron in his room, Sean and Ron got into a loud argument over hiring a bail bondsman from Lexington, when Ron wanted someone who was local without the 90-minute drive. Sean refused to let Ron talk to the woman, instead, playing Ron the video the woman made at the city council meeting.
Sean and Freeman wanted to go back to the campsite, Lee agreed to drive them. When they got to the campsite, Freeman and Lee left in Freeman’s vehicle with Freeman stating he was going to drive Sean home to Oklahoma and the pair were gone.
In the last update, Lee was on his way back to see his father in the hospital Wednesday morning, promising to live stream from the hospital once his father was released.
