FIRST ON 3: Navassa mayor charged with threat against town councilwoman

NAVASSA, NC (WWAY) — Navassa Mayor Eulis Willis was arrested earlier this week. He’s accused of cursing at and threatening town Councilwoman Minnie Brown.

In December 2013 Minnie Brown was sworn into office on the Navassa Town Council. Since then she has worked closely with Willis; a job Brown says has not always been easy, but things came to a head just before Christmas, when Brown says Willis threatened her.

“I said, ‘What’s wrong with you mayor?’ So he went on and on and cursed at me,” Brown said.

According to Brown, Willis threatened to send her back to South Carolina, where brown lived before moving to Navassa.

“He had no right to say that to me,” Brown said. “And it was hurtful. And that’s why I did what I did.”

Brown swore out a warrant for Willis’s arrest on a misdemeanor charge of communicating threats.

Brown says the threat was sparked by her questioning a fellow council member about why he omitted a felony charge from his official paperwork.

“You don’t do things like this and hide it from the people who elected you to work for them,” she said.

Brown says Willis likes to have control over council and regularly has difficulties communicating with them effectively.

“If you ask a question, then you’re wrong, and you get cursed at or hollered at,” Brown said.

Brown says she hopes these charges spark a change in Willis.

“I would like for things to go better,” she said. “It can’t continue to go like it is. It can’t. It can’t.”

She says she hopes the arrest will make Willis treat the entire council with more respect.

“I just want him to think about what he said to me,” Brown said.

And he will have the next month to think about the incident before he appears in court on Jan. 30.

Willis did not want to speak with us about this.

Brown says she will not drop the charges.