Democrat House candidate hit with felony summons at campaign event
A Democratic candidate running for the House of Representatives said she is facing criminal charges and that she was hit with a police summons while at her own campaign event this month.
Lakesha Womack, who is running to represent North Carolina's 14th Congressional District, currently held by Rep. Tim Moore, R-N.C., said in a Facebook video that she was confronted by police about felony charges related to failure to pay for a rental car in 2019 when she arrived to a campaign event in Polk County, N.C., on Oct. 11. Womack claimed she was first made aware of the felony case just days before, despite records showing it had been opened in January 2020.
Moore's campaign said the incident "raises serious questions" and that "she owes voters an explanation, especially since her court date is one week after the election."
"How is she going to be an advocate for our community when she can't manage her own personal affairs? As an attorney for over 30 years, I think everyone should be held to the same standard of justice, and this situation is no different. Free legal advice: When the rental agreement ends, so does your right to keep the car," Moore's campaign told Fox News Digital.
The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Fox News Digital that she was served a criminal summons for Felony Fail to Return Hired Motor Vehicle on Oct. 11 by a deputy with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. It did not confirm that it took place at a campaign event.
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Womack recalled being told about her criminal charges days before the campaign event during a conversation with the Gastonia, N.C.'s NAACP branch. In 2019, she said she was homeless with little money when she had a medical incident that sent her to the intensive care unit (ICU), during which time her son was placed into foster care with no one immediately able to look after him.
After retrieving her son, Womack said, "I'm living in a hotel and, you know, scraping together, you know dollars to buy food from Dollar Tree, to like, buy dinner for him every night. And I had a rental car. Couldn't afford the rental car, and they came and got it. And so I never knew that, you know, they have filed, you know, I guess that it was a pending felony."
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"I didn't post that I was gonna be in Polk County, but they knew exactly what car I was driving. And as soon as I parked, they pulled up behind me and served my papers with my address from 2019. So, y'all hadn't looked for me in the past seven years, but now all of a sudden, you know exactly what car I drive and where I'm going to be," Womack said.
She did admit in an Oct. 9 video addressing the charges that she did owe fees, "But I just want you all to know that, you know, I do owe them people some money." She said in the same video that she thought she previously "had resolved the issue, but it’s not resolved."
Womack said in that video that she could not receive the January 2020 criminal summons at the time because she was homeless and therefore did not have a stable address.
That video appears to have since been deleted from her campaign Facebook page. Womack said in later videos that she could not discuss an active case.
If found guilty, she could face between four and 24 months behind bars or community service for that duration.
North Carolina's 14th Congressional District is located in the western part of the state and spans from the suburbs of Charlotte to more rural areas in the North Carolina foothills.
Fox News Digital reached out to Womack's campaign for comment.