A Kent County Example of a Lack of Clean Hands: Sign Stealing in the Recorder of Deeds Race
I warned Republicans not to get too triumphant and self righteous last Thursday when it was revealed that Dana Long, the husband of Senator Bethany Hall Long, was caught stealing GOP signs that threatened Delaware with a return to their Depression-causing economic policies. What Mr. Long did was wrong, and he will pay the consequence for his crime. But certain Republican Party officials and commenters here acted like all Democrats engaged in sign stealing, and no Republican ever did. I warned them because, at that moment, I was aware of an incident in Kent County allegedly involving La Mar Gunn, the Republican candidate for Kent County Recorder of Deeds, who allegedly and personally removed the signs of his opponent, the Democratic Recorder of Deeds, Betty McKenna. I commented that I knew some evidence had been turned over to the Delaware State Police at the Troop 3 barracks. We held off on publishing the allegations until I had the evidence in hand and reviewed it. I received it last evening.
First, we have a sworn affidavit of the witness, Ronnie Allen. He testifies under oath that, on October 18, 2014, between 4 and 4:15 pm he personally witnessed Mr. La Mar Gunn remove a McKenna sign. Here is Mr. Allen’s affidavit:
The surveillance video from the Royal Farms is below:
From the video you can see Mr. Gunn’s vehicle pull up to the pump at the top right of the screen. At :39 of the video you see a gentleman in a white shirt walk from the vehicle up to the grassy embankment on the side of Rt. 13 where some political signs were located. You see him remove a sign and then walk out of the camera shot. At 2:43 of the video, you see the same man walking from the bottom right of the screen back into the camera’s view, towards his car, allegedly after disposing of the sign. At 6:00 of the video, the gentleman finishes gassing up his distinctive car, and pulls away, going through the other pumps and moving closer into the camera view, showing the car to be the same car as pictured below in a newspaper article.
I am unaware of any charges being brought against Mr. Gunn. Indeed, while we have sworn eyewitness testimony that Mr. Gunn was the man involved, that cannot be definitely proven from the video. All the video proves is the theft and the fact someone fitting Mr. Gunn’s description and driving and/or riding in Mr. Gunn’s car committed the removal of the sign. So perhaps that is why the police are delaying. Or perhaps it’s because Mr. Gunn is a Republican. Who knows. [Update: I’m told that this case is being reviewed by the Attorney General’s office]. The point of this post is to back up, with sworn testimony and visual evidence, the assertion that Republicans lack clean hands in this matter. For those braying for Mr. Long’s head and Mrs. Hall-Long’s defeat should now do the same for Mr. Gunn.
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OMG, I can’t wait until Wednesday.
In unrelated news, AG investigating weather after wind knocks down signs of both parties overnight.
local man signs sworn affidavit saying a weather phenomenon he believes to have been “a gust” was the party involved.
Experts speculate wind must be libertarian.
… and here I thought they called the wind “Moriah” …
Steve. It’s ‘Mariah”
Aoine: I know … I just can’t type today.
Maybe it was the wind from Middle-Earth I was thinking about.
Oh, no video shows man getting gas. 125 of Lamar’s signs go missing including 10 at that location. Now we fret over him getting gas. As the state police said, it is inconclusive.
Yeah right! The any colored man would do! There is no crime at all! Very foolish of you Guys to Post this! Gunn is not Flowers ok! He’s has run a great campaign! Great one! Stop the hating! Even the state troopers have said they are not investigating this! Go knock on some doors and get your voters out!
The key, and obvious, differences between the 11th Rep. District video and the Kent R.O.D. video are, in the Middletown piece, the alleged perpetrator is clearly identified personally; the signs that he took are clearly generic (but lawful) G.O.P. signs; further evidence of the pattern of pilferage was already inside his car, and he did it at 4:00 in the morning, which can be interpreted as evidence of a desire by the perpetrator to remain undetected . The Kent Co. video that appears to show someone in a vehicle that is almost certainly LaMar Gunn’s car is clear in only two aspects: It looks 100% like Gunn’s car, and someone whose identity cannot be established beyond doubt is taking a sign from the road in broad daylight. The affiant clearly identifies Mr. Gunn, but such further evidence was not necessary in the 11th Rep. Dist. case for Middletown police to arrest Mr. Long. Although there is wrongdoing, to some extent, on both sides, it’s clear that the liberal Democrats’ sense of “elite entitlement” to rule plays a role in their nefarious actions. This sort of thing seems rare amongst the GOP.
First of all, no it’s not rare among Republicans. Second, Bethany Hall-Long is no liberal.
Neither one of these guys did anything illegal, other than break the law.
And I broke the law at the same level of misdemeanor by driving too fast on my way to work. I’ll do it later today on my way home, too. Same level of importance — in fact, my speeding is potentially much more harmful to society.
I went to the debate at the Modern Maturity Center a few weeks ago, and Gunn’s behavior was very bizarre. Every time a question was asked, he answered about some robo-signing thing from mortgage companies and how McKenna has supported this. It was very strange. The looks from McKenna were priceless whenever he spoke. It seemed like he was out for revenge on an issue with McKenna more than serving the citizens of Delaware.
Didn’t Gunn sue the widow of a war vet?