In January 2025, the Town of Summerfield, NC, publicly accused former Town Manager Scott Whitaker and former Finance Officer Dee Hall of illegal deletion of town records, improper payouts, refusal to give passwords, and breaking a host of policies and laws. Up until then, neither Scott nor Dee had ever had a complaint against their long and distinguished professional careers.

Both Scott and Dee vehemently deny any wrongdoing and can prove their innocence. However, they never had the chance to do it.

Without involving law enforcement (as government has the responsibility to do if they suspect illegal activity) and without ever asking Scott and Dee a single question, the Town instead filed a civil lawsuit in July in Guilford County Superior Court alleging embezzlement, fraud, and racketeering—which can carry decades-long prison sentences. The lawsuit is sealed for now, but the criminal accusations are public. The law requires Scott and Dee to answer this complaint and they had no choice but to hire a team of civil and criminal defense attorneys. Good lawyers are not cheap, and expenses are already more than $50,000—with no end in sight.

Scott and Dee did not commit any crimes. Vindication won’t come until the case works through the court system. Until then, the allegations of wrongdoing hang in the air as the Town maliciously intended.

Many wonder why the majority council in Summerfield would do this? It's all about the fight over development in Summerfield. Landowner David Couch sought to develop a large-scale project and the General Assembly got involved because of Summerfield’s resistance to more development and denser housing. Ultimately, a slight majority of Council (and thus Scott) was compromising with the developer, but new citizens against growth and the project were elected in late 2023 and they’d promised to fire Scott because he assisted with the compromise. Firing the manager was their right, but they could and should have have let him go with the dignity and respect he deserved. Instead they "found a loophole" (their words) to avoid paying the one-year severance and insurance in his contract, knowing Scott's wife was fighting breast cancer.

Summerfield is a limited-services government of 11,000 people and at the time employed a staff of nine well-educated and experienced people. All nine of them resigned en masse over how the manager was treated by the four council members and because of the toxic work environment they’d created in early 2024. It was the first time in State history the entire staff of a town had resigned together. Weeks later, the NC General Assembly voted to de-annex the 973 acres that Couch had tried for a decade to develop. It was the largest de-annexation in North Carolina history.

Therein lies the answer: this council of four was to blame for two disastrous, embarrassing events, and they have set out to get revenge on the prior staff.

We've known Scott and Dee for years, through their dedication to their jobs, communities, families, churches, and beyond. They aren’t perfect and are sinners in need of a Savior, just like everyone. But we know they didn't commit crimes after joint lifetimes of stellar careers. They are casualties of vindictive elected officials and the development divide in Summerfield.

Scott and Dee, like most all of us, are representative of middle-class Americans: We work hard for what we have, never believing that malice and power in the wrong hands could take it all away. This shouldn't be how their stories end. Scott and Dee can't compete against the town's bank accounts. This is truly David vs. Goliath! Justice might be blind, but she isn't free. We hope you will join us in raising money to help what threatens to be massive attorney fees simply to defend themselves and restore their reputations. Let's help justice prevail!

All funds and legal expenditures will be verified by an outside auditor. No amount is too small to help.

We ask that you pray for them, that God will shorten the timespan to prove their innocence, that they will be able to recover their reputations, and that they can put their lives back together again. May God richly bless you for all your support. He is faithful.