South Bend Republican mayoral candidate Desmont Upchurch admits hitting woman 23 years ago
SOUTH BEND — In the wake of criminal charges alleging that a Republican city council candidate punched and choked his teen daughter Monday, the Republican candidate for South Bend mayor, Desmont Upchurch, has confessed to slapping a woman he was dating more than 20 years ago.
On Tuesday, Upchurch visited The Tribune’s newsroom to share that he was charged with assault on a woman in 2000, when he was in his early 20s and lived in Durham, N.C. Records show that Upchurch pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge, and he says he was required to participate in an anger management program.
Upchurch, now 46, said he's discussing the assault now to preempt any attempts by the St. Joseph County Democratic Party to use it against him ahead of the Nov. 7 municipal election.
He also shared that in 1998, he pleaded guilty to larceny, or theft of personal property. He initially was charged with embezzlement, a felony, but entered a plea deal to reduce the charge. He said some friends talked him into stealing about $800 from a place where he worked and loading it on to a credit card.
"They were just doing a lot of mischief," Upchurch told The Tribune. "One came to me and said, 'Hey man, put this on here, and you can keep this amount,' and I said, 'OK man, here's my credit card number,' and they did the thing."
Darrin McDougal, a representative of the Durham County clerk's office, confirmed that the assault happened in July of 2000 and the larceny in 1998. But case files for less severe offenses are regularly purged every several years, McDougal said, so detailed reports on the two incidents no longer exist.
McDougal said Upchurch still owes Durham County $336 in penalties and court costs for the larceny.
Along with his confessions, Upchurch condemned fellow Republican candidate Roosevelt Stewart’s alleged domestic battery earlier this week and said he won’t support Stewart’s campaign for the 2nd District seat on the South Bend Common Council. Given that the two were knocking on doors together just Saturday, Upchurch said, that’s a dramatic shift.
Stewart, also 46 years old, is charged with domestic battery in the presence of a child under age 16, a Level 6 Felony in Indiana. His 15-year-old daughter told police that her father assaulted her Monday after she refused to hand over his car keys, believing that he was too drunk to drive.
The girl told police that Stewart punched her in the face, bloodied her nose and wrapped both hands around her throat until she became dizzy, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Tuesday by the St. Joseph County prosecutor’s office.
“Due to the recent issues, I can no longer support Roosevelt’s campaign,” Upchurch said. “I have empathy, but at this time, I believe Roosevelt does not need to focus any longer on politics, but to focus on how to repair the hurt to his family.”
The St. Joseph County Republican Party did not respond to multiple Tribune requests for comment Tuesday and Wednesday about whether the party will continue to support Stewart’s candidacy. In a statement Tuesday, county GOP chair Tyler Gillean said the party strongly condemns domestic violence and is praying for Stewart's family.
In an arraignment hearing Wednesday afternoon, a judge set a $1,500 cash bond for Stewart’s release. He has been ordered to avoid all contact with both the daughter he's accused of assaulting and his five-year-old niece who witnessed the incident. If he’s released, he will be forced to wear a tracking device.
A judge said Stewart’s prior criminal history included nine public safety convictions, all of which occurred more than 20 years ago.
The Rev. James Stewart (no family relation) is Roosevelt Stewart’s pastor of a decade at the Lord’s House of Shepherds church, and he attended the Wednesday hearing.
He told The Tribune that Roosevelt is an upstanding member of the church, having served as a deacon. But the past year in Roosevelt’s life has been turbulent because of a family crisis, the pastor said.
Upchurch details affairs that led him to hit his girlfriend in 2000
Speaking of the assault, Upchurch said he was dating a woman with whom he had a child. But Upchurch cheated on her with the fiancée of a coworker. His colleague found out and, in an act of revenge, slept with Upchurch’s partner.
“And so when I (got to) the place they were at, I showed up angry,” Upchurch said of his partner and the coworker. “I slapped her.”
Upchurch says he and his partner made up by the next day. But after being slapped, she had called the police. Officers soon arrested Upchurch and took him to jail, where he was detained for 72 hours before his court hearing, he said.
He claims to have told the story publicly multiple times over the past few years, particularly during October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In a statement on his campaign’s Facebook page Wednesday, Upchurch condemned Stewart’s actions and said, “it's important to promote respect, empathy, and open communication to prevent and address such behavior."
After the 2000 incident, Upchurch joined the Army. He did three tours of Iraq and was stationed in several states before he became a recruiter, which eventually brought him to South Bend, where he focused on attracting Notre Dame pre-med students into medical positions. He lives with his wife and their blended family of six children, with a seventh on the way, he said.
He’s now retired from service and announced his mayoral bid this January. Facing incumbent South Bend Mayor James Mueller, Upchurch would be the city's first Black mayor and its first Republican mayor since 1967, when Lloyd Allen won reelection.
Last year, Upchurch narrowly lost a race for St. Joseph County auditor.
Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend mayoral candidate admits he slapped a woman two decades ago
