Willingham to run again for Jacksonville City Council
Chrissy Vick
July 9, 2007 - 8:56PM
Daily News Staff
In the extensive political history of Jerome Willingham, a former Jacksonville city councilman, he has sued the city of Jacksonville while serving as a councilman, was disbarred as an attorney and has been charged with embezzlement.
Now, he’s running for Jacksonville City Council again.
Willingham, 52, filed to run for Ward 1 of Jacksonville, promising to “express and execute a beneficial vision for the city of Jacksonville” in a written statement Monday. He urged voters to take his past “in context.”
In September 2005, the former attorney turned himself in after being wanted by the State Bureau of Investigation on an embezzlement charge from late July 2005.
Willingham is accused of embezzling $52,509 through a real estate closing from George Wigfall, a client he represented while a practicing attorney, according to warrants at the time, a Daily News report said. The case is pending and is scheduled to be taken up by the District Court on Aug. 22, according to a district court official Monday.
The N.C. State Bar ruled in October 2004 that Willingham could not practice law in the state for five years because of how he handled the funds of three clients, including Wigfall, and a Disciplinary Hearing Commission order at the time.
He also lost his license in 1995 for allegedly violating State Bar bookkeeping rules.