Editor’s Note: This article has been updated the reflect that the charges were dropped.
WAKE COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — North Carolina state superintendent hopeful Michele Morrow’s former campaign manager was charged after police said she posted pictures of a stranger online, and the charges were subsequently dropped at the behest of the Wake County District Attorney’s Office.
Jennifer Sloan Rachmuth, 54, of Apex, was charged on Saturday with one count of cyberstalking after law enforcement says that she took pictures of a woman at a Harris Teeter and posted them on her X account on Oct. 31 “for the purpose of terrifying, harassing or embarrassing” the victim, according to warrants. The District Attorney’s office subsequently ordered those charges dismissed on Monday, according to court documents that state “described conduct does not meet elements of the offense.”
The photos still available on Rachmuth’s social media show a woman who appears to be working in the bakery section of the grocery story while wearing a black-and-white keffiyeh. Keffiyehs are traditional Middle Eastern cotton headdresses that originated with nomadic Bedouin tribes. The black-and-white keffiyeh is frequently used to show support for the Palestinian people.
In the post, Rachmuth calls the woman a “Hamas sympathizer” and says that management told her to leave when she asked them about it.
It is illegal to film or photograph people in North Carolina in private places where citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy, however in public it is legal. The inside of a store is considered the private property of the business, and therefore it is up to individual stores their policy on photographs and videos taken on their property.
On Nov. 3, Rachmuth posted on X that she had been arrested, and in subsequent posts railed against being arrested in front of her children.
“I believe the North Carolina Democratic Party is involved,” she said of her arrest. She did not share details on how or why she believes the state Democratic Party to be involved.
On Monday, she posted on X that she had been in contact with the Wake County District Attorney about the charges being dismissed, which is reflected in court documents.
In her X profile, Rachmuth calls herself an investigative journalist. She previously worked as the campaign manager for Michele Morrow, the Republican candidate for the state superintendent seat. She was replaced as campaign manager sometime in or around June 2024, according to Media Matters for America.
The document dropping the charges can be reviewed below: