Patrick Barnes, general manager of Chancellor Media Corp., which owns the billboard, said the Jesus message was PETA's second choice. Barnes rejected the message that PETA originally wanted on the billboard. But County Judge Ted Wood said the outcome turned on the courthouse question. Commissioners had refused to pay Kiper a salary earlier this year when he was sworn in to a previously vacant justice of the peace precinct. He sued the county, and a judge ruled that commissioners had to pay him a reasonable salary.
Commissioners are now at odds with the county's other two JPs.
Commissioners voted Dec. 20 to subpoena Phil Woodall and E. Jay Hail, forcing them to appear at next week's Commissioners Court meeting. Isaiah Shoels, one of the 12 students killed by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, was the grandson of Essie Shoels of Amarillo. In September, the boy's parents, Vonda and Michael Shoels, spoke at Greater Love Temple in Amarillo to share their grief over the tragedy. And local schools wrestled with the fallout of the shootings. Within three days, rumors of impending school violence surfaced in Amarillo, and four local high school students were arrested, accused of making terroristic threats.