An election official in North Carolina has been indicted after allegedly attempting to drug a teen.

According to a recent decision made by a grand jury, former election official James Yokely has been indicted after allegedly drugging a teen’s ice cream from Dairy Queen.

The teen whom he allegedly attempted to drug was his step-granddaughter and her friend.

Fox News reported the following details on the alleged crimes:

A former county elections official in North Carolina has been indicted on felony charges after authorities say he placed pills into the ice cream cones of two teenage girls.

ADVERTISEMENT

A grand jury in New Hanover County indicted James Edwin Yokeley Jr., 66, on two counts of unlawful distribution of food or beverage and one count of intentional child abuse involving serious physical injury, according to court records reviewed by WBTV.

According to the Wilmington Police Department (WPD), authorities allege that the grandfather placed pills into his 16-year-old step-granddaughter and her 15-year-old friend’s Dairy Queen ice cream cones in August 2025.

According to WECT, in a preliminary test, the pills tested positive for the psychedelic drug MDMA and cocaine.

Here’s his mugshot:

Port City Daily reported Yokely was previously arrested for the same crime, but due to a state law, was able to avoid his initial charges:

The WPD obtained video surveillance from the Dairy Queen on Oleander Drive that allegedly shows Yokeley placing something, believed to be pills, into the frozen desserts. The girls, who discovered the pills and flagged down help, did not ingest them.

The indictment, issued on Jan. 20, states Yokeley knowingly put trazodone in the girls’ beverages. Trazodone is a prescription antidepressant that is often prescribed off-label for insomnia.

Yokeley has now been charged with two counts of distributing unlawful food or beverage and one count of intentional felony child abuse resulting in serious physical injury.

The unlawful food or beverage charge is a Class C offense under General Statute 14‑401.11. The subsection that applies to the case notes it is against law to distribute any “poisonous chemical or compound or any foreign substance such as, but not limited to, razor blades, pins, and ground glass, which might cause death, serious physical injury or serious physical pain and discomfort.”

Trazodone is not a controlled substance, which led to the dismissal of charges related to controlled substances originally made against Yokeley. This included two counts of contaminating food and drink with a controlled substance and felony possession of schedule I narcotics.

ADVERTISEMENT

Yokely reportedly is registered as a Republican:

How would you judge it?

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.