HAMPTON — A Hampton woman was convicted of election fraud last week — with a Circuit Court jury finding she intentionally used an incorrect election date on a fictitious campaign website.
Mary Patricia Taylor, 57, was convicted in Hampton General District Court last fall of the misdemeanor charge of “communicating false information to registered voters.” A judge at the time fined her $1,000 and ordered her to perform 100 hours of community service.
But Taylor appealed that decision to the Hampton Circuit Court — and opted for a jury trial.
After a morning of testimony July 17, a jury of four men and three women found Taylor guilty of the charge, said Gloucester Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Megan C. Zwisohn, a special prosecutor handling the case after the Hampton prosecutors office recused itself.
Jurors then recommended a $300 fine, plus court costs, after a brief sentencing hearing. Circuit Court Judge Walter J. Ford, a retired judge substituting on the case, imposed that sentence.
But Taylor said she’s planning to take the case to the Virginia Court of Appeals. “It was kind of shocking, disappointing,” Taylor said Monday. “A lot happened that day … and I didn’t anticipate for what occurred to occur.”
Asked what she expected, Taylor said: “A fair trial. … I do intend to appeal it. I’m just waiting on the transcripts.”
Early last year, Taylor — a longtime Hampton School Board activist and critic — anonymously registered a website in the name of one of the board candidates, Ann Stephens Cherry, using the domain name annstephenscherry.com.
The website purported to endorse another candidate, Martha Mugler, with the site’s green and white coloring reminiscent of Mugler’s campaign materials. But instead of Mugler’s candy red apple, Taylor’s site featured a worm and partially eaten apple.
Though it was legal to register the site in Cherry’s name and mock Mugler, prosecutors said Taylor broke state election law by announcing a May 10 voting date — a week past the real May 3 date.
Cherry has said the website was misleading and “impugned my integrity” by making people think she was behind it, adding that she had to black out the web address on campaign materials. Mugler agreed the site was misleading to voters.
Cherry and Mugler — both of whom won that election day — testified at last week’s trial. So too did Gaylene Kanoyton, president of the Hampton chapter of the NAACP, who said some citizens voiced concern about the false information.
During his investigation, Hampton police detective Brandt Hess got a search warrant for the “GoDaddy” website registration service, and found that Taylor had registered the website.
Taylor has said she didn’t support either Cherry or Mugler in the campaign. She said she thought voters would see the sarcasm in Cherry recommending Mugler to the board — given that the candidates weren’t seen as particularly close — and said she was trying to “generate interest in the election” and get people to vote.
After the election — the day after she was charged with misleading voters — Taylor issued an apology on her website.
Taylor’s lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Anthony Balady, has called the ad political satire, a “cartoon” with no intent to mislead. It’s an old political joke, he said, to “give your opponent’s supporters the wrong date.”
Several months before the trial, Balady filed a motion contending that the state election fraud statute unconstitutionally impinged on Taylor’s First Amendment free speech rights. But in a hearing in March, Ford ruled the statute constitutional. Balady did not return phone calls Friday or Monday.
Dujardin can be reached by phone at 757-247-4749.
