Candidate questions whether police broke into his house

Jorge Cornell is questioning whether police broke into the residence of Greensboro City Council candidate or two homes where he often visits to plant either a listening device or some kind of incriminating evidence.

Campaign manager Eric Ginsburg said in a phone call a few minutes before 11 that Cornell learned that belongings were found moved around at the two homes where he is a frequent visitor, and in one an ink cartridge appeared to have been taken from a computer printer. At one of the houses, people coming out noticed a van occupied by an unidentified man at about 3:30 or 4 p.m. When the people came out, the man got back in the van, which the people leaving the house found to be suspicious.

Ginsburg said that Cornell recently received a phone call from someone who was checking on his home at 1309 Kirkman St. for him. The person said it was immediately evident that things had been moved around in the living room and bathroom. Ginsburg said at that moment the associate was checking to see if anything was missing, but from all appearances the articles in the house had only been moved around.

Ginsburg made the following statement to me over the phone:

"I believe that this was the police and that there are only a couple of reasons for what I think they could possibly be doing. One would be to take material from those homes to be used in some way or another, which apparently did occur at one of the residences with the printer cartridges.

"The other reason to enter these homes to leave something. There are different things, if I had to take a wild guess I would guess at what they are leaving. Regardless of what was taken or left, I’m curious about the timing that it’s right before voting begins. I’m also curious about whether there was a warrant and what that warrant was for. It seems highly unusual to me that anyone other than the police could be behind them because three locations were visited and nothing was taken."

Ginsburg continued:

"The only guess I would have that they could have left, I would assume that it is some sort of tap, a listening device, video or audio recording. That, or leaving something illegal to try and frame him on.

"The police have been pretty much hands-off for awhile now and that these three illegal entries suggest police presence. I am highly concerned that somebody is trying to intimidate people from participating in the political process and that regardless of people’s political views people should very clearly see this as a threat to democracy."

UPDATE: I had the opportunity to speak with Assistant Chief Dwight Crotts today. He dismissed Ginsburg's allegation, and encouraged the residents whose homes were apparently broken into to contact the police.

Crotts' full statement:

“If Mr. Cornell or whoever the victim can give me these locations and would like to file a report, we would be glad to determine if there was break-in. And if there was a break-in, we’d try to catch the offenders just like we would for anyone else.

“I know that we have not received a report on Mr. Cornell’s location. I would certainly encourage them to call the police department.”