Once an obscure cocktail waitress, Gwendolyn Smith will forever be linked to the alleged sex plot to damage Mayor Willie Herenton’s reputation and thereby end his reign as Memphis’ first elected African-American mayor. While a very bright media spotlight has cast Smith as a troubled, marijuana-smoking stripper, far less light has been shone on Richard Fields, the attorney she accuses of bringing her into the alleged scheme. When Fields’ background is brought into the picture, images of alleged philandering and questionable business practices also surface. According to Smith, Fields coerced her into an unwanted sexual relationship. “That is absolutely not true,” said an agitated Fields. “Why she does this, I have no idea. She needs help. You would have to have a wild imagination to bring this up.” Fields insists that Smith is a troubled woman and way offbase with her accusation that he concocted a sex plot to snare Herenton. “The allegations are false and Mayor Herenton decided to hold a press conference. If he had called me, I would have told him everything isn’t true,” said Fields. “I represented him in the (Mahnaz) Bahrmand case (a sexual discrimination suit against then-superintendent Herenton). Why would I hurt this man. You got to remember, Gwen made the allegations. There is no conspiracy. No, it just doesn’t exist,” Fields said. “It’s all in Herenton’s mind, brought on by a troubled woman. “This is a man (Herenton) who had a child with a 31-year-old waitress (Claudine Marsh). How could I blackmail him to have sex with the woman (Smith). He’s single and could have sex with any woman.” Fields said his own background argues against him moving to “destroy a black leader. My children are all biracial. The (three) women I was married to are black. My children will have to live in this world as black people. I’m white, but not your typical white person.” Herenton, however, said he believes Smith’s story and called the alleged conspirators “snakes.” “He (Herenton) let his paranoia take over without getting the facts. I’m not going to let myself be falsely accused,” Fields said. “Why won’t people look at my history.”‘I don’t like Richard Fields’Fields is a self-described “excellent” attorney who handles tough cases. “I get results. I show compassion and that’s why I’m a good attorney. I’m not a bad person. I’m not out here doing illegal things,” said Fields, who represents the local NAACP. Controversial blogger Thaddeus Matthews, Fields’ longtime nemesis has a different view. He paints Fields as anything but a friend of the African American community and chides him for his history of relationships with African American women. “I don’t like Richard Fields,” said Matthews, a political watchdog who rants and rails against ministers and politicians he calls “politricks.” Fields doesn’t care for Matthews either. “If you believe Thaddeus Matthews, I feel sorry for you. People believe what’s on his blog and that’s what really upsets me,” he said. Shelby County Commissioner Deidre Malone also has Fields upset. Malone, who runs a public relations firm, helped Smith go public with the sex plot allegation. “Her family asked me to assist her. But I did not assist Ms. Smith in filing the complaint with the DA’s office as Richard Fields alleges,” Malone said. “For Smith to have gone through what she’s gone through, by me being an African-American woman and not assisting her, what does that say about me? “I resent the fact he’s trying to make the story about me. I don’t have a dog in this hunt. He needs to direct his focus on the allegations against him and get me off his radar screen,” said Malone. “I thought Deidre was a good person. Why would she do such a thing?” Fields asked. “And why would she deal with Thaddeus Matthews, a known felon who doesn't take care of his own children?” Fields accuses Malone of conferring with Matthews who, he pointed out, has no journalism skills and no credibility. He said Matthews’ blog is littered with inaccuracies and untruths. “If what I said about Richard Fields over the years is a lie, then why hasn’t he sued me?” Matthews asked. “I welcome the lawsuit. I invite him to sue me. In fact I will file a formal complaint with the Board of Professional Responsibility to suspend his law license until an investigation in this matter is finished.” Fields has a disciplinary hearing July 9 to determine if he violated the rules of professional conduct in a malpractice claim against a Nashville attorney. He could be censured or suspended, if found in violation.Fact or fiction Fields has been practicing law since 1976 and said he works hard for his clients. In the early ‘90s, he said he worked pro bono for nine years to obtain the freedom of three young men who were wrongfully incarcerated for murder. “It was the right thing to do,” he said. His pro bono cases notwithstanding, some he has represented said he reaped more than he earned. In the late ‘90s, Fields represented the homeowners of a predominantly African American neighborhood in East Memphis called Truse-McKinney. Residents of the 20-acre section, just south of Poplar and east of Mendenhall, banded together to sell their property as a single tract. Home Depot purchased the property in 1997 for $9 million; Albertson’s grocery store built on the property as well.Residents received about $10.25 per square foot for the property that was developed for African Americans in the 1940s by Winrow Chapel CME Church.Dr. Randolph Meade Walker, then the pastor of New Philadelphia Baptist Church on Mendenhall, said Fields “isn’t a shining knight. I think he got more on the property than a real estate agent.”Dr. Walker said Fields sent him a threatening letter with the intent of taking him to court. The church was divided over the matter and Walker relinquished his pastoral duties and moved on. “It was a legal action over my head for two years,” Dr. Walker said. “His letter tore up New Philadelphia Baptist Church. He accused me of all kinds of things including church polity. And the church still hasn’t completely recovered.” Fields also is mired in controversy of a criminal nature. In early May of 2003, he filed a robbery complaint and police questioned 20-year-old Adrienne Hale, a 9th-grade dropout. Hale told police that she had known Fields since she was 16. While walking to work one day, she said Fields noticed her and beckoned for her to come to his home. According to the police report, Hale said, “He took me into his house on the front patio. We talked for a while and then he took me upstairs to his bedroom and we had sex.” Hale claimed she had sex with Fields three days a week and was paid $50 or more for sex. “Sometimes my girlfriend ‘Juicy’ would come over there with me. He liked two girls sometimes,” she said. Hale also described to police the contents of Fields’ home, the position of furniture and the number of windows in his bedroom. But the statement she gave to police on May 1, 2003 was not signed. Fields said Hale is telling a lie.
