Spring Valley Mayor Demeza Delhomme Released After Spending 4 Days In Jail
NEW CITY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A judge has freed Spring Valley's mayor, who had been jailed since Friday over a dispute involving a children's day camp.
Mayor Demeza Delhomme had been jailed on a contempt-of-court charge.
As WCBS 880's Sean Adams reported, Delhomme emerged from the Rockland County jail with stubble on his face and an open shirt collar Tuesday saying there had been a misunderstanding.
Spring Valley Mayor Demeza Delhomme Released After Spending 4 Days In Jail
"I have no grudges against anyone, no hard feelings," Delhomme said.
"The reason we're all here, it's all about the kids," the mayor added. "We wanted a day care for the kids."
Delhomme then started musing aloud about running for re-election.
"I was going to do four years; I'm (now) going to do 12," he said.
The controversy started when the camp's youth director got into a conflict with the mayor and was suspended.
A judge then ordered the mayor to open the camp at the Louis Kurtz Civic Center. Delhomme said he had. But two village trustees said some office doors were still locked, so Delhomme was arrested.
The mayor agreed Tuesday to honor conditions involving the camp.
"Everything the trustees wanted is going to happen," Trustee Vilair Fonvil said outside court. "It didn't have to come to this."
Fonvil was originally appointed by the mayor, but they're now bitter rivals, CBS 2's Tony Aiello reported.
Deputy Mayor Anthony Leon supports Delhomme, even though in 2007, Delhomme accused Leon of assault during a bitter election season.
"That was a coup d'état. Well set up," Leon said Tuesday.
Village Attorney Jerrold Miles tried to put the standoff in perspective.
"A large part of what we're seeing play out here is a political struggle and personalities involved in that struggle," he told Adams.
Delhomme became mayor last year after defeating an incumbent who was under federal indictment for corruption.
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