A 66-year-old election official in North Carolina, James Edwin Yokeley Jr., has stepped down from his role after being charged with secretly putting drugs into his granddaughters’ Dairy Queen Blizzards.
Police say Yokeley flagged down officers on August 8, claiming the girls, ages 15 and 16, had found strange items in their ice cream. But surveillance footage reportedly showed Yokeley himself slipping substances into the desserts. Lab testing later identified the items as cocaine and MDMA. Fortunately, the teens did not eat the tainted portions.
Yokeley was arrested on August 26 and is facing charges that include felony child abuse, drug possession, and food contamination. He was released on a $100,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on September 11.
The incident prompted Yokeley to resign as chair of the Surry County Board of Elections, a position he had only held since June. In his resignation, he insisted he was falsely accused and expressed confidence that he would be cleared. State officials said his departure allows the elections board to move forward without distraction while the legal process plays out.
Yokeley, a former school board candidate, had previously campaigned on themes that included vaccine skepticism and unsubstantiated claims about election integrity.
