It Started With An Alleged Plot To Set Da Mayor Up Marion Barry Style.
Now the sistah in the middle of the controversy has been arrested.
Gwendolyn Smith, 29, was taken in Friday for smoking weed while on probation for an unrelated 2004 forgery conviction.
A former Memphis strip club waitress, Smith has told police she was recruited by political enemies of Mayor Willie Herenton, 67, to seduce him and videotape their sexual encounter.
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Vowing to run for re-election to a fifth term this October, the city's first elected black mayor has easily won re-election since his initial victory in 1991 in the closest mayor's race in Memphis history.
The Tennessee mayor held a news conference last week thanking Smith for exposing the alleged plot, but refused to name the critics he believes were behind it. He described them as a group of wealthy businessmen.
Smith surrendered for arrest Friday afternoon in Nashville, in the custody of two Memphis police officers, on a warrant.Her parole was violated when she tested positive for marijuana, said Don Aaron, a spokesman for Nashville police.
Smith contends she was offered $150,000 to take part in the sex-scandal plot by Richard Fields, a well-known Memphis lawyer long involved in civil rights causes.
Fields, who represented Smith in connection with the Nashville forgery charge, denied the allegation and described her as a drug abuser and scam artist "desperate for money."
With Herenton calling on the Justice Department and the governor to investigate the matter, Memphis police are currently looking into the claim.
"Obviously, the mayor has made some enemies over the years...," said Marcus Pohlmann, a political scientist at Rhodes College of Memphis.
"But if there are wealthy individuals willing to go to those lengths to defeat him, it could help him and energize his base," Pohlmann said.