Charges partially dropped against NC election official accused of drugging ice cream
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Prosecutors dropped three charges; only a felony child abuse count remains.
- Police said video showed Yokeley placed pills; a field test spurred the arrest.
- Lab testing found no controlled substance under state law, hindering prosecutions.
Prosecutors dropped three of four charges against a former North Carolina election official who was accused of putting drugs in his granddaughter’s ice cream last summer.
James Yokeley Jr., who served as the Republican chair of the Surry County Board of Elections, was originally charged with two counts of contaminating food or drink, felony possession of a Schedule I substance and felony child abuse.
A Dec. 22 court document shows that prosecutors have now dropped all but the child abuse charge against Yokeley, who resigned from his position as chair after the charges went public. WECT first reported the dropped charges.
The document states that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute the dropped charges because “lab testing confirmed the substance was not a controlled substance under (state law.)”
The incident that sparked the charges happened on Aug. 3 at a Dairy Queen in Wilmington.
Police said that Yokeley himself reported finding pills in the ice cream, but that video footage showed he had been the one to place the drugs — which they initially said were cocaine and MDMA — into the treats.
Greg Willett, a spokesperson for the Wilmington Police Department, told The News & Observer on Friday that the field kit indicated “the potential presence of a controlled substance,” which is sufficient to warrant an arrest.
“... A lab test, which is more comprehensive than a field test kit, is used in court proceedings,” Willett said in an email. “The threshold for what constitutes a controlled substance, as defined by law, was not met according to the lab test.”
Yokeley denied the charges in his resignation letter earlier this year, writing that he had been “falsely accused” and was “prayerfully confident that I will be exonerated of all accusations levied against me.”
His next court date is on April 2 in New Hanover County.
