ANTIDEPRESSANT: City Councilman Candidate’s Wife Attacked Him: Texas

A wife‘s story of ovarian cancer and domestic
violence added yet another layer of passion to Garland’s lone contested city

council race Monday night.

Sharp questions, finger-pointing between
incumbent John Willis and challenger David McNeely and a moderator calling for
order had already made for a lively forum. Then, as parties were dismissed,
Donna McNeely stepped to the podium at Shiloh Worship Center.

She told
of being diagnosed with cancer shortly after their marriage in 1997, of
suffering depression after the treatment and of medication that magnified her
issues.

“I have a mean-spirited side and I took it out on him,” she told
the gathering of about 100. “All those months of treatment and I was fed up. And
he was the one I could beat the hell out of.”

But when the husband made
it a two-way fight before turning to leave the home, she said, she called
police. She ditched the prescription medication and they have long since gotten
through their issues, she said, adding that David McNeely is today a candidate
worthy of the voters’ faith.

During the forum, the candidate had ducked
questions about the 1999 assault charge that was dismissed after he served a
year’s probation, restating that it was long ago and not relevant. He said later
that the decision to make a public statement was Donna’s.