Newark Police on Tuesday charged state Rep. Gerald Brady of Wilmington with two misdemeanor counts of shoplifting from an Acme store in Newark.
Police said Brady stole a shopping cart full of merchandise from Acme on Suburban Drive in Newark on Jan. 12 and Dec. 29.
In a statement on Friday, Brady, announced he will resign from his legislative position, which he has held for 16 years, by Feb. 4. In the statement, the 65-year-old lawmaker said he has been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and did not mention the criminal allegations.
He also said that PTSD “can be punctuated by episodes or conduct that may make little sense to people who do not understand the nature of PTSD.” He noted that he served in the Delaware Army National Guard “during the Middle Eastern conflicts of the last two decades.”
Delaware Online/The News Journal reported on Friday that Brady’s resignation was linked to a shoplifting investigation, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. A law enforcement official on Friday also confirmed the investigation.
Around 5:20 p.m. on Jan. 12, an Acme employee called police to report a shoplifting incident from the store 15 minutes prior, police said. A man was pushing a shopping cart full of merchandise past the registers and toward the exit. The employee confronted him, but the man refused to pay and left the store, police said.
The employee said he recognized the man from a shoplifting incident before on Dec. 29, though that incident had not been reported to police at the time.
The employee recorded the man’s license plate number and was able to confirm Brady was the vehicle’s owner, since his license plate was a Delaware State Representative plate containing his initials. The employee also looked at a photo of Brady and confirmed he was the suspect, police said.
The total value of the merchandise was less than $200 in each incident, police said. They did not specify in the release what Brady took.
On Tuesday, Newark Police issued a warrant for Brady’s arrest. Brady immediately turned himself in and was released on his own recognizance to appear in Newark Alderman’s Court at a later date, police said.
Brady’s resignation comes six months after he faced calls to step down over a separate controversy, which erupted after the public learned of an email he sent in June that used a racist and misogynistic phrase to describe Chinese women who are sex trafficked through the Port of Wilmington.
After the email surfaced, Brady apologized in a statement sent by a spokesman. Despite widespread calls for his resignation over the summer, he originally planned to finish this term and not seek reelection in November.
Due to his resignation, the district will hold a special election to replace Brady in the coming months. An exact date for the election isn’t set yet.
In November, lawmakers redrew legislative maps to accommodate for population changes via U.S. census data collected in 2020. Thanks to population growth in Sussex County, Brady’s district will be essentially erased and absorbed by neighboring districts to make way for a new House district in lower Delaware.
Whoever is elected to replace Brady in the special election will not be able to run for re-election 10 months later without facing an incumbent in a neighboring district.
Brady did not immediately respond to request for comment on Tuesday.
Sarah Gamard covers government and politics for Delaware Online/The News Journal. Reach her at (302) 324-2281 or sgamard@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGamard.
