ROCKY MOUNT — Charges that the owner of the Trump Store in Boones Mill assaulted three of his employees were dismissed Monday by a judge who heard accounts from the women and Donald “Whitey” Taylor.
“It’s absolutely a lie,” Taylor testified in Franklin County General District Court. “None of it’s true.”
The women had accused Taylor, 74, of indecent exposure and four counts of assault and battery, saying they were sexually and emotionally abused while working as cashiers at the flashy store along U.S. 220 that sells posters, bumper stickers and other merchandise promoting President Donald Trump.
But in finding Taylor not guilty of all of the misdemeanor charges, Judge Allen (A.J.) Dudley cited a variety of questions about the women’s testimony and credibility.
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Taylor said the allegations were fabricated last October for two reasons: The women hoped to profit from a sexual harassment lawsuit, and they wanted to undermine his candidacy for mayor of the small town of Boones Mill.
“She knew I make a lot of money,” Taylor testified about one of his accusers. “It was all a money scheme.” Earlier, in calling the charges “fake news,” he said they were filed to hurt his chances of defeating incumbent Mayor Victor Conner, an election he lost.
Following the election, Taylor charged the three women with embezzlement, saying he had just learned that an audit of his store’s finances showed that they took money from the cash register.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Andrew Bassford suggested in his questions to Taylor that he actually brought the charges in retaliation against the three women, who are not being identified because of the sexual nature of their allegations.
The embezzlement charges have since been dropped by the county commonwealth’s attorney.
Bassford, who works part-time for the office, said he couldn’t comment on why prosecutors decided not to move forward on the felonies, which Taylor brought by swearing out charges before a magistrate.
During two hours of testimony, questions were raised about the credibility of the three accusers, who also gave sworn statements to a magistrate rather than report the charges to the sheriff’s office.
One witness, a 16-year-old employee at the store, said he was present during one of the encounters and never saw Taylor grab one of the women by the neck, as she alleged. The woman said Taylor “slung me around like a rag doll” after accusing her of taking a candy bar.
The woman — who also accused Taylor of propositioning her after he exposed himself in a back room, and of grabbing her buttocks on a second occasion — was described in testimony by her own daughter as having an “atrocious and horrible” reputation for truthfulness.
All three of the women were impeached to some degree, defense attorney Chris Kowalczuk said in arguing that prosecutors had not met their burden of proof.
“Have we raised reasonable doubt?” Kowalczuk said in asking Dudley to dismiss the charges. “I would submit we’ve raised a truckload of it.”
