Dumfries Mayor Jerry Foreman is accused of stealing a campaign sign from a property in the town.
The twice-elected mayor was arrested Saturday afternoon. Vice-Mayor Willie J. Toney said the stolen campaign sign belonged to him.
The arrest comes prior to Tuesday’s General Election for Dumfries Town Council. Foreman was reelected as Mayor last year and is not running this election cycle.
Here’s how the arrest went down, according to Dumfries Town Manager Dan Taber:
A complaint was dispatched to the Dumfries Police Department on April 30, 2016 concerning an allegation of the theft of an election sign that was displayed along a public street.
A description of the alleged suspects, along with a vehicle description and tag number were provided by a witness. A short time later , Town Police located the vehicle and spoke with the occupants.
After a thorough investigation into the complaint, the Police Department brought the facts before a County Magistrate who found that probable cause existed to issue a warrant for Petit Larceny, a Class 1 Misdemeanor.
The suspect, Gerald Foreman of Dumfries, was cooperative throughout the investigation and when contacted after the warrant was issued, immediately made arrangements for service of the warrant.
As is the normal process in matters such as this, he was released at the Police Station on his signature promising to appear in court for trial on June 9, 2016, with no further processing required. All suspects should be presumed innocent until and if they are convicted in a court of law.
The crime is punishable by up to a $2,500 fine or 12 months in jail.
Toney is in North Carolina where his mother died this morning.
“I’ve gotten phone calls from the police…It’s concerning what is going on back [in Dumfries] but my thoughts are with my family right now,” said Toney. “I know [Foreman] has really been doing his best to get me out of office…’
Foreman penned a paid OP-ED for Potomac Local over the weekend. The piece published briefly this morning before Foreman requested we remove the post, so we did.
Here’s an excerpt from that post:
That may not be the popular thing to do, but that’s who I am. The Town of Dumfries has an election on May 3, 2016, and the re-election campaigns of Vice-Mayor Willie Toney and Councilwoman Helen Reynolds concern me enough that it warrants me speaking up.
I endorsed Vice-Mayor Toney and Councilwoman Reynolds for Council in 2012. After the election, I supported Willie Toney for the Council vote as Vice-Mayor in 2012 as well.
I am disappointed Vice-Mayor Toney and Councilwoman Reynolds have been uncooperative and disruptive on and off the dais and continually advance partisan politics. Their actions have been to deceive the public.
Foreman went on to write both Dumfries Town Council incumbents Toney and Reynolds have missed meetings, or have come to meetings unprepared for the discussion of the day.
