School Board Candidate 'Resigns' After Criminal Background Uncovered

A resident on the ballot for a two-year term on the Vernon Board of Education who had emerged as an enigma with an extensive criminal record has resigned her spot on the Democratic ticket.

Democratic Town Committee Chairman Bill Dauphin said on Wednesday night that Tara M. Gordon had resigned her position in Box 13C on the November ballot. That was after saying on Friday morning that party representatives had been feverishly trying to locate her to request that resignation for some time.
 
"The VDTC has received a letter of resignation from Tara Gordon," Dauphin said. 
Earlier on Wednesday, Dauphin said of her criminal history, "I am just learning about all of this. We do not have the authority to to take her off the ticket, but we are asking her to sign a letter resigning from the ticket. We have been unable to contact her to do that. We have not been campaigning on her behalf and she has not been campaigning."
 
In an e-mail sent on Wednesday at 7:14 p.m., Dauphin said the resignation letter was in.

"We as a town committee have been going forward for a while with 11 candidates," he said. "They are all great candidates who can be elected. It's hard to know who your neighbors are. If we had the legal authority to do so, we would have dropped her from the ticket weeks ago. We were trying to find new voices to represent new parts of town and apparently Tara turned out not to be the person we thought." 

Gordon is a 30-year-old resident of 17 Regan St. Her biographical information was not included in a color brochure dropped at a Vernon home about a month ago by a visiting candidate and no candidate information was been submitted to Vernon Patch for a candidate profile package.

Dauphin on Wednesday, before the resignation was turned in, said her information was absent from the brochure because she has had no contact with party officials since being nominated in mid-August.

A search for Gordon on the Vernon Patch home page last week revealed her arrest in December for shoplifting at the T.J. Maxx in the Tri-City Plaza shopping center. She was convicted of sixth-degree larceny in the case on April 8 and is currently on probation with a three-year suspended sentence, correction department officials said. 

She was observed on camera taking a hair care product, according to an arrest report obtained from Vernon police in a Freedom of Information Act request. 

Dauphin on Wednesday morning said he had not had a chance to talk to the nominating committee about Gordon since he became aware of her background. 

"I try to let the nominating committee operate independently," he said. "I do not want this mistake we have made in the candidate search process to affect our mission, which I think is a good mission. The slate is 12 individuals and the members of the slate are not responsible for each other."

Pondering the loss of the 12th candidate, Dauphin then paused and took a deep breath. 

"I would hate for anyone to be affected by this," Dauphin said. "The Democrats are not recruiting criminals and this story is unfortunate on a whole lot of levels." 

Vernon police have a file about 3 inches thick on Gordon. It is full of disturbance cases. 

And the T.J. Maxx incident was not the only case involving a hair care product.

In March 2010, police were called to the the 17 Regan St. apartment complex for an "active fight," according to an incident report. At the scene, Gordon said she had borrowed a friend's hairdryer, according to an incident report. The friend's daughter came to her apartment to get the hairdryer back and Gordon informed her it was not working properly, according to an incident report.

The friend and her boyfriend came by later and began yelling at Gordon about the hairdryer, according to an incident report. Gordon said she would "bust up" her friend's car and the confrontation turned physical, police said. 

Gordon's boyfriend was also involved, according to an incident report. Police calmed down Gordon and the friend and made them promise not to speak to each other, according to an incident report.

In an Oct. 12, 2012, incident report, Gordon was referenced by police as having claimed to have had a "mental breakdown" over $500 allegedly owed to her by a cousin from Hartford.  

She was issued a verbal warning for creating a public disturbance that day, according to an incident report.

Gordon is due in court on Nov. 11 for a May cannabis infraction ticket she entered a not guilty plea for out of Windsor, according to judicial system records.  

She has had several convictions, according to judicial system records.

Gordon was placed on three years probation with a three-year suspended sentence in a 2007 case out of East Hartford after being found guilty of second-degree forgery, according to judicial system records.

She was found guilty in a 2004 East Hartford fifth-degree larceny case and sentenced to 30 days in jail, according to judicial system records.

In a 2005 breach of peace case out of Hartford, she entered a guilty plea and was given a 90-day suspended sentence and a year probation, according to judicial system records.

In a case out of the state police Troop H barracks and Enfield Superior Court, she had a guilty plea for marijuana possession and was discharged unconditionally, according to judicial system records.

Absentee ballots have been ready for weeks. Dauphin said he has sent a notice to the local registrars office about the regular ballots.  

"I do not think it matters. She will not be elected and she will not serve," he said.