Former Nitro treasurer named in suit over mobile home

WINFIELD – Tifney Terry, the former treasurer for the City of Nitro, is named in a civil lawsuit by a woman who says Terry is trying to force her to pay additional money to purchase a mobile home.

Paula Aleshire filed the complaint Jan. 15 in Putnam Circuit Court. Aleshire lives in Poca, and her complaint says Terry now lives in Cincinnati.

According to the complaint, Aleshire and Terry signed a contract on Aug. 17, 2006, for Aleshire to buy a mobile home in Poca owned by Terry. The terms of the contract were for 24 monthly payments of $240 for the 1989/90 mobile home.

As of August 2008, Aleshire says the 24 payments had been made. But she claims Terry now seeks additional payments. She seeks judgment.

Aleshire is being represented by Charleston attorney Mike Clifford, and the case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Philip Stowers.

Interestingly, Aleshire's complaint was notarized by Wanda Carney. Earlier this decade, Carney and Terry garnered attentions as the leaders of West Virginia Wants To Know, a government watchdog group that made headlines for, among other things, taking on Nitro officials on a variety of issues.

In 2007, Terry was ordered removed from office because she didn't have a $15,000 insurance bond required by state law. She later secured that bond and was reinstated as treasurer. But she resigned as treasurer in October 2007, just before Nitro officials learned the city was facing a financial crisis and was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

Terry had told media outlets then that Carney, Clifford and Nitro resident Karen Fritz were bitter and harassing her. She blamed them for her bond problem. Fritz had sued to have Terry removed from the treasurer job, and Clifford represented Fritz in that case. And Carney works for Clifford.

All of that followed an incident in which Nitro City Council member Bill Clark sued Carney, alleging she propositioned him. Carney countersued for slander.

Putnam Circuit Court case number: 09-C-20