An Easley City councilman--ticketed and charged--after police say he not only parked illegally and refused to move, but stole a "no parking" sign!
Police reports say the incident happened this past Saturday at the Spring Fling event in the city. Officers say Councilman David Watson refused to not park his truck in the road where the event was taking place. Women working at the event claim he threw verbal bombs at them in return.
An officer left a citation on his windshield. That officer says Councilman Watson then cursed, calling the ticket "bull---", and crumbled up the ticket and drove off.
But officers say he returned a short time later and stole the "no parking" sign that was at the event preventing people from parking where vendors were setting up.
Watson was charged with petty larceny Monday morning. He pleaded guilty to that charge, but not to the parking citation. That will go to trial on April 28th, according to police.
The petty larceny charge can come with up to 30 days in jail and a thousand dollar plus fine.
We found out, the judge at municipal court revoked that possible hefty punishment in exchange for a payment of $5 dollars and 57 cents. The cost of the sign. The court say the councilman paid that.
We visited the councilman at his home Tuesday night, and he told us: "{I was} havin' a bad day. It was a mistake absolutely."
In downtown Easley, we did find some people who said Councilman Watson has done great things for the city, including downtown revitalization.
And we found others who said they were not surprised to hear about the charges against him.
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