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State House candidate DeAngelo Jelks has resigned as vice chairman
of the Hamilton County Democratic Party after being accused of
raping a woman during his campaign.

Jelks, 40, is a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, a married father
of two and the Democratic nominee vying to represent northern and
eastern parts of Hamilton County in the state House of
Representatives.

Jelks is seeking to fill the District 29 seat left by the late Rep.
Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, who died early in the summer.

On Sunday, two days before the special election, a rape report was
filed naming Jelks as the suspect, according to the Chattanooga
Police Department. A spokesperson said a special victims unit
investigator has been assigned to the case.

Further details about the case and the report filed Sunday can't be
shared with the public until the investigation is completed,
department spokesperson Elisa Myzal said.

Jelks did not respond to messages during the day on Monday, then
declined comment at the front door of his Ooltewah home in the
evening.

Chattanooga Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod said the alleged victim
contacted her last week and told her story.

According to Coonrod, she did not previously know the woman who
reached out Wednesday and said Jelks had raped her in the past few
weeks of the campaign.

After meeting with Coonrod, the accuser — a woman who had worked
with Jelks during his campaign — went to the Chattanooga Police
Department to file a complaint, Coonrod said.

"I told her the only real way we can do anything is if she comes
forward and goes to the police," Coonrod told the Times Free Press.
"So she went Sunday and met with a detective at the Family Justice
Center and got a DNA swab."

According to Coonrod, the woman also handed over evidence from the
alleged attack when she filed the report.

Coonrod, a victim of sexual assault and domestic violence known to
advocate for women, said she felt it was her responsibility to help
the alleged victim.

"This is a serious allegation. And we're not going to play around
with it, you know, and we shouldn't make women feel like that they
can't come forward with information and we shouldn't be prejudging
the intentions behind it," Coonrod said. "And we shouldn't just
assume he's guilty either, but we have to take it seriously and we
have to investigate it, regardless of someone's party or color or
whatever.

"We have to do due diligence."

In addition to convincing the alleged victim to file a report,
Coonrod sent a release to media Sunday, referring without specifics
to accusations against an "up-and-coming" leader in the party and
calling for her contemporaries to "believe women."

In the statement, she criticized the party for what she perceived as
a lack of action and invoked the values of the #MeToo movement,
which has provoked investigations and justice against men accused of
sexual misconduct since its 2017 inception.

"This year, powerful male politicians across the nation have fallen
from grace as a consequence of their past indiscretions coming to
light. Since the start of the Me-Too Movement, senators,
congressmen, and other elected officials have been publicly held to
account by the voices of women and those who support them.
Nevertheless, this pattern of patriarchal, dominant behavior is not
just limited to high offices — it is happening in our own backyard,"
her statement said.

On Monday, Coonrod confirmed to the Times Free Press that the
statement was about the situation with Jelks, which she said she
addressed with the candidate and with Hamilton County Democratic
Party Chairman Rodney Strong last week.

"I felt like, you know ... he [Jelks] needed to step down, at least
until there's a proper investigation around it," Coonrod said
Monday. "Because if there was going to be a police report or he was
guilty or got arrested, he would be acting as vice chair when it
happened.

"I felt the party needed to take this seriously from the moment we
heard about this."

On Monday, Strong told the Times Free Press that Jelks had texted
his resignation from his position as vice chairman Sunday, the day
the report was filed.

Strong said he heard about the allegations from Coonrod on Friday,
then told Jelks about them, and Jelks resigned Sunday.

Strong said the party had not been made aware of the complaint in
enough time to take action of its own before Jelks resigned.

"There is a protocol. If he had not chosen to resign, within our
bylaws, there's a process where you can have any officer or
executive committee member removed," Strong said. "It requires a 20
-day notice and as a special setting of a business meeting for that
purpose. And so that part of the process had not even had time to
kick in yet."

A new vice chairman will be elected at a later date, Strong said.

Asked if the party was still backing Jelks in his election, Strong
said the group had not had any discussion yet.

"That's something I really can't comment on. There has not been time
to make — you know I can't arbitrarily say one way or the other,"
Strong said. "The timing is such that we have not reached that point
to make a decision about that."

Some former supporters distanced themselves from Jelks over the
weekend.

some text
Screen capture of a Facebook message by Karley Dodson. / Contributed
by Sarah Grace Taylor
Karley Dodson — co-founder of Volunteer Progressive Services, a
group formerly helping Jelks with campaign services — shared in a
Facebook post over the weekend that the group had severed ties with
Jelks over the incident, according to a screen capture obtained by
the Times Free Press.

"We want to echo earlier sentiments of regret over the special
election in District 29. At 3pm Friday, we were informed of recent
allegations of sexual misconduct pertaining to our client. We then
immediately ceased campaign services and operations, and we are no
longer affiliated with this candidate or campaign," Dodson wrote.
"We want to sincerely apologize to anyone impacted by this news.
This topic is highly sensitive and impacts everyone in different
ways. We at VPS are taking time to process and regroup after this
incident as we plan to continue fighting for what's right."


Contact Sarah Grace Taylor at staylor@timesfreepress.com or 423-757
-6416. Follow her on Twitter @_sarahgtaylor.

https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2021/sep/13/tn- house-candidate-jelks-accused-rape/554109/

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