Kautz Still Pursuing Case of 'Altered' Email Conversation

No, she isn't letting it go.

Kelly Kautz said Tuesday that she could hardly pay attention to campaigning on Monday because of a flurry of emails published on a local blog, where she was depicted as a threatening name-caller.

At the end of the night, while celebrating her win, it was still on her mind.

"I'm still going to pursue that," she said Tuesday evening. "People keep thinking they can do whatever they want and it doesn't matter the consequences or if it's above the law, or not.

"Even though I won, I'm not going to let it go. People may say, 'well, she won, just, you know, move forward.' But, to me, it's not about that. It's about what's right and wrong, and that was completely wrong."

Since learning on Nov. 7 of the blog postings, Kautz has called on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for help.

The conversation posted on a local Snellville blog were apparently reprints from exchange between Kautz and Katie Norris, who worked with David Johnson of Strategic Vision on a blog post about the Snellville race for We Are Politics.

The email in question reads like this on the local blog, it comes in response to Norris apparently apologizing to any mistakes she may have made in transcribing an interview with Kautz:

"I do not have time to sit down and write out my responses for you. If you are writing an article and did not understand or hear my response I would have been happy to have repeated it for you. I would be happy to speak to you again if you would like to call me so that you may get accurate answers to your questions. If you do not, I hope you have liability insurance as you will be paying me for the rest of your life. I do not tolerate fools or liars. Thank you."

However, Kautz asserts that the last two lines, in particular, are not her words. On her Facebook page, Kautz posted a screenshot of the email she sent. That email comes without the "liability insurance," and "fools" and "liars" part.

Kautz believes that members of the Barbara Bender campaign had something to do with it. Specifically, she said Bender supporters were distributing the so-called fabricated emails around town. Snellville Patch reached out to Councilman Tom Witts, a Bender supporter whose name is mentioned in an email regarding the fracas. (The email also was posted on the local Snellville blog.)

Witts had this to say today:

"I know that Ms. Kautz claims that they were altered, however if you read the article the author refers to Ms Kautz's threats in the last paragraph of the article. This is the statement that Ms. Kautz says was added.  

"Only two entities could have altered the email. The originator at We Are Politics or Ms. Kautz. The article was put up last week, Ms. Kautz made it an issue on Monday. That's all I know."

Calls and emails to David Johnson and Katie Norris were not immediately returned.

However, on We Are Politics, Johnson wrote in the comment section of their blog posting that Kautz had threatened Norris. "You must be so proud of yourself in attempting to scare someone who was just out of college working on her first assignment," the comment reads.

Darla Dixon, the creator of the local blog that published the conversation in question, returned an email Wednesday afternoon saying she could not comment.

"It would be inappropriate for me to comment until law enforcement contacts me, and when they do I'll be very happy to cooperate with an investigation, should law enforcement decide it merits further investigation," she wrote.

Dixon, who supported Barbara Bender during the race for mayor in Snellville, told a local news agency, that Strategic Vision forwarded the email conversation to her. On her blog, she notes that she has now requested additional information from Johnson and Norris to evaluate Kautz's claims.

Kautz plans to follow up on the police report she filed, as well as with the county district attorney and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.