Kingstown–Paradise Lost??!! –Political Fires Burning Hot!! Possible Criminal Acts?? –Bullying, Threats and Intimidation Alleged in Town Council Race!! Fire Chief Resigns! Maybe others? –Report by Robert A. Williams

The circumstances of this article remained sort of off my radar screen and everybody else’s radar screen for way too long. The still unsolved shooting death of Deisa Washington, 23, mother of two at a party with over 100 people present at about 2:am on October 10, 2016 at 137 Foxhill Drive in Kingstown should have been a wakeup call to everybody that something is amiss in the town of Kingstown. A town named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a proponent of non-violent protest against government oppression of black citizens seems to have more than it’s share of violence and aggressive behavior. The location of this unsolved shooting has been linked to prominent persons in Kingstown political and social leadership circles.

That is a little history that might set the stage for the rest of this article that may or may not apply to what will come next.

In this present 2017 election cycle that has been kind of “crazy” with the law that made school board races partisan in Cleveland County, the Kathy Falls lawsuit that has cost taxpayers a bunch and the judges rulings that have extended schedules for filing for office, Mr. Gregory Freeman filed to run for the town council in Kingstown. Shortly thereafter Mr. Bobby Ray Horton, Jr., a Commissioner on the Patterson Springs Town Council, files a formal challenge to Mr. Freeman’s candidacy based on Freeman’s residency. A Public Hearing before the Cleveland County Board of Elections was scheduled and held August 25, 2017 at 4:00 PM. I decided to attend. So did a reporter from the Shelby Star as well as from the Charlotte Observer.

Basically the hearing was temporarily adjourned until next Wednesday to allow Mr. Freeman to bring to the Board an affidavit from his landlord saying he lives where he says he lives. All of this was relatively (emphasis on “relatively”) straight forward regarding Mr. Freeman’s residency. But what really piqued my curiosity was some testimony from a Mrs. Ramsour, wife of Kingstown Council member Robert Ramsour, that turned into an argument when Mr. Freeman stated he had been bullied, harassed and intimidated ever since he had filed for the Kingstown Town Council seat. Mrs. Ramsour denied all of that. It became a he said, she said and the Board of Elections basically said bring in the affidavit and we will go from there. Mr. Freeman asked the Board of Elections if there wasn’t something to be done about such illegal threats he had received since filing for the elected office of Town Council for the Town of Kingstown. The BOE attorney, Brian King, advised Mr. Freeman it was past 5:00 and the BOE Office was now closed.

I talked with Mr. Freeman after the hearing and Mr. Freeman gave me a copy of two letters he had written to the Kingstown Mayor, David Lattimore, as well as stated Mayor Lattimore threatened to shut down (and did shut down) the Kingstown’s Fire Department and Emergency Response capabilities because of Mr. Freeman’s refusal to support him for Mayor in the upcoming Election. Mr. Lattimore faces three challengers in that election. The letters are attached below and indicate a request for an SBI and District Attorney investigation of what is transpiring in Kingstown. From the Deisa Washington unsolved killing I would say such a request would be in order. And the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Department should be involved too.

Mr. Freeman also stated that he just might quit this race because of all the bullying, threats, harassment, etc. and nobody will help put a stop to the illegal activity.

This article and associated letters are being forwarded to the Cleveland County Board of Elections, The District Attorney and the Sheriff for appropriate action.

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