City councilman undaunted by racist Email....just sad!!!

A 28-year-old MTSU student might have thought he was hiding behind anonymity on the internet, but the TBI traced a racist, hate-filled email to his computer in Murfreesboro.

The target of Andrew Scott Gardonia's alleged attack is a Clarksville city council member.

"It's just sad that someone could be feeling so much hatred," David Allen, a pastor now politician, told NewsChannel 5.

Allen told NewsChannel 5 that he didn't even know Gardonia.

What Allen, the city council representative for Clarksville's 8th Ward, does know is the electronic attack is a direct result of his ongoing campaign to silence a noisy, nearby racetrack at a certain nighttime hour. Currently, a lack of law entirely, according to Allen, could allow the track to operate around the clock if owners chose to.

Allen admitted he takes the email seriously, but refuses to live in fear. He said he's already forgiven Gardonia, the suspected author of that email last August.

"Hey, n-----," the Email reads. "You really are a dumb dumb (*expletive*) n-----, piece of (*expletive*), you know that?" The sender operated under a screen name of "Noah of God."

"I'm told he's a fan of racing," the councilman said, regarding his relevance to the track battle. "That he'd been down to the track. I would suppose that that's why he's defending the track."

The Allens' live just a stone's throw from the Clarksville Speedway. They can hear races going on at all hours of the night. Allen insisted it's his constituents who urge him to continue to fight for restricted hours. Allen's latest proposal to end racing nightly at 1:00 a.m. failed last summer with a city council vote of 7-5.

Many of Allen's naysayers argued that the racetrack was there long before the homeowners were.

"I think it'd be a different situation if the racetrack was trying to move in where the houses were already at, but being that we've moved around him (track owner), it'd be like shutting down any other business that had been for years and people didn't agree with," said Clarksville city councilman Jeff Burkhart.

He was one of Allen's seven co-council members who voted against his latest proposal.

Allen said he'll try again, after one year has passed, to bring a city ordinance to implement strict closing hours at the racetrack.

As for Gardonia, his next court date is July 8. He is charged with two counts of harassment and one count of civil rights intimidation. The latter charge is a felony, and could carry a maximum penalty of 12 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.