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Town councilwoman arrested

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MARSHVILLE, N.C.—Denise Whitley, a former mayor and current councilwoman in the small Union County town of Marshville, is charged with forgery and obtaining property under false pretences.  Investigators say she forged a will in order to take control of an elderly relative’s property.

The State Bureau of Investigations told Newschannel 36 that estate is worth $1.2 million dollars. It includes a home in Marshville next door to the home Whitley lives in with her husband.

The will in question was signed in April 2008 for Ethel Julia Whitley. It bequeaths all of her property to Jimmy and Denise Whitley. The arrest warrant served on Denise Whitley says she forged the shaky signature of her husband’s Aunt Ethel and personally submitted it to a county clerk.

Neighbors say Ethel Whitley died in May 2008.

Denise Whitley was unseated as mayor of Marshville in 2005, but remains on the town council. Her term expires in 2011.

Monday night, she attended a budget meeting at the town hall.  She said “no comment” to a reporter’s question at first, but then added, “The charges are not true and are a personal family matter that should not even be discussed in public.”

Marshville’s mayor Franklin Deese told Newschannel 36 she can and will remain on the town council. “I’m not that familiar with it, but it seems that whatever happened in the situation did not entail anything with any duties,” Deese said. “I believe in giving everybody the benefit of the doubt and until somebody is proven guilty of something, in this America that I live in, you are innocent.”