Manor mayoral candidate arrested for harassment

A candidate for mayor in Manor was arrested for "misdemeanor harassment." FOX 7 Austin's Katie Pratt sat down with the candidate to get his perspective.

MANOR, Texas - ***WARNING: Viewer discretion advised due to explicit language***

The talk of the town was this year's Manor mayoral candidate race due to candidate controversy.

In a video recorded from August 19, 2024, you can hear the Manor mayoral candidate yelling expletives and shouting at the city manager, "You're a fake f***ing n*****."

It happened in the Manor City Hall lobby, and it was one of Robert Battaile's many outbursts that have been caught on camera. In the surveillance video, mayoral candidate Robert Battaile was speaking to the City Manager, Scott Moore.

"There's a certain line that shouldn't be crossed, and the line on that day was crossed and has been crossed," said Scott Moore.

FOX 7 Austin News got an exclusive interview between both men in the video.

"They kept and suppressed a person from being on the ballot," said Robert Battaile. "Bobby Reece is a 22-year Army vet. He applied to be on a place on the ballot for Place Three. They denied him that election coercion. That's a felony."

Robert Battaile

FOX 7 was told this sparked the confrontation between the mayoral candidate and the city manager shown in a video.

"He brought in a candidate that wasn't really registered to run for council," said Moore. "We explained to him about 20 minutes, ‘Sir, you're not a registered Manor voter, so technically you can't really be on the on this year's ballot.’ So she gave him the voter's packet, and that's when it just went off."

The August incident was not the first time Battaile had conflicted with a city official. He has been arrested once and detained once.

"The harassment is because of the barrage of emails and the messaging, especially to the city secretary, the Secretary of State called in the attorney general's office saying she wasn't doing her job," said Moore. "She was stressed out to the point where I didn't do anything wrong, and so she's been doing this job for over 20 years."

Battaile stated that he sent the emails to inform the city.

"I send out sometimes 4 or 500 emails once or twice a week," said Battaile. "So this has been going on for two years. It only became harassment when I started talking about election coercion."

In addition to the charges against him for his words, he has faced backlash for his writing on social media.

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"You know, I'm banned on the Nextdoor app for life," said Battaile. "Banned for life, because I told some truth. I never lie."

Moore said he is still in shock over Battaile's actions.

"I can't believe this happened in a place where I work, a community that I call home," said Moore. "And then again, he's running for office. And again, he's got ideas and motives. But it really wouldn't serve the residents. If you really look at what he's done repeatedly since he's been here."

Battaile claims he is running for the position because he wants to see change. One of his agenda items is preserving Black history within the town.

"They want to put 95 townhomes on top of black people's graves right there," said Battaile. "I'll show you some black people's graves that they want to put underneath townhomes."

Even though Battaile has many ideas for the city, people do not want to hear more from him after what they have already seen.

"He wanted to start speaking in Spanish and start doing things to try to prove a point," said Moore. "And in Spanish, you know how you say the word in Spanish, and black is Negro. And so in essence, that's like, okay, nobody in the council needs to be spoken to in Spanish."

Incumbent Christopher Harvey and Patricia Ann Campbell are also running for the seat of mayor in Manor as well.