By Sarah Richardson
Greenbrier County Sheriff candidate Mark Robinson is currently housed in Middle River Regional Jail after a warrant was issued for his arrest earlier in the week through the Augusta County, VA Sheriff’s Office for “stalking with intent to cause fear, assault, or injury.” Robinson was booked in on May 8 just before 6 p.m., and the bond type listed states “no bond.”
This is the second time Robinson has run for Sheriff of Greenbrier County and used the campaign platform to highlight the dissolution of his marriage. In 2018, Robinson was incarcerated on Election Day and yet secured roughly 24 percent of the vote against then-Sheriff incumbent Bruce Sloan.
On Saturday, May 4, Robinson submitted a letter directly to the Mountain Messenger that states in part:
“I have just been informed by the Augusta County (VA) Sheriff’s Dept that they have an arrest warrant for me. I printed a letter to the Augusta County Prosecutor in which I basically offered a large cash reward to any person who would persuade one of my children to call me. Yesterday I went door to door and passed out a lot of them. A couple of people called 911 and complained, so the deputies came looking for me. One called me. Not especially wanting to have that conversation face to face, I headed home to West Virginia. No one told me I was facing arrest until I called in today. I had, before I went there to distribute the letters, emailed the letter to both the Prosecutor and the Sheriff. So now once more I will undergo arrest and jail and extradition and jail and trial and sentencing and more jail, not for anything violent or threatening, but merely for doing what I think any good dad should do.”
The letter he was distributing door-to-door offered various amounts of cash to anyone who is “able to persuade” his children to call him for “a substantive discussion of several relevant topics.”
Robinson has seven children, four of whom are over the age of 18.