Council president rejects mayor’s call to resign

The mayor of London is asking the City Council president to resign following the criminalcourt resolution of a September domesticviolence arrest.

The city “does not condone any act of domestic violence or any derogatory, harassing or discriminatory statements,” Mayor Patrick J. Closser said in a statement released Wednesday that calls for the voluntary resignation of Joseph Russell.

Russell, when asked if he plans to resign, said, “No, absolutely not.”

According to a London police report, officers were called just before 7 p.m. Sept. 10 to a North Main Street house regarding a domestic dispute.

Russell, 34, who has been on the council since May, told officers that during an argument over house chores, his wife, Molly Carroll, threw a dish sponge at him. That prompted him to push her out of the house through a back door and then to lock her out.

Carroll admitted to police that she threw the sponge, but she said that he had then grabbed her by the throat while pushing her out the door.

Russell was arrested and charged with domestic violence and taken to the TriCounty Regional Jail in Mechanicsburg. He pleaded guilty Monday to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct and was fined $150 and court costs.

Russell said he’s baffled by Closser’s response and “why the mayor feels it necessary.” Russell said the action probably is politically motivated by his adversaries.

“This has nothing to do with my ability to serve the community,” he said. “It’s a personal matter between me and my wife.”

Closser said his statement speaks for itself, but he acknowledged that Russell, as an elected official, does not have to comply with the call to resign.

Rex Castle, who would become the council’s president if Russell resigned, said he’s “very fearful that it’s going to be a tarnishment on the city if (Russell) stays.”