Mother And Daughter Allegedly Rigged High School's Homecoming Election, Now Face Maximum Of 16 Years In Prison

Nov 26, 2021 by apost team

Since the tradition began at American universities in the 19th century, homecoming has become a quintessential part of the high school experience. And there’s no doubt that the prospect of being crowned homecoming king or queen looms large in many teenagers’ minds.

That certainly seems to be the case for Emily Rose Grover, an 18-year-old Tate High School student in Pensacola, Florida. In tandem with her mother, Laura Rose Carroll, Grover allegedly worked to rig the school’s homecoming court election, which has since landed the mother-daughter duo in serious legal trouble earlier this year.

According to the Associated Press, Carroll, who worked as an assistant principal at Bellview Elementary School in the same county as her daughter’s high school, accessed the school district’s internal system to cast more than 100 votes for her daughter so that the school would crown her daughter homecoming queen.

In October 2020, officials discovered that 117 homecoming votes were cast from the same IP address; and later, investigators were able to trace 246 votes back to Carroll’s cell phone and computers.

CBS News reports that Carroll and her daughter were arrested on counts of “offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks, and electronic devices, a third-degree felony; unlawful use of a two-way communications device, a third-degree felony; criminal use of personally identifiable information, a third-degree felony; and conspiracy to commit these offenses (a 1st degree misdemeanor).” Both the mother and daughter face up to 16 years of prison, and Grover will be tried as an adult, as she turned 18.

AP reports that Tate High School expelled Grover and that Carroll was suspended from her job. As of May 2021, both were also free on bond.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News in November 2021, Grover and Carroll spoke out for the first time since news of their arrest broke.

“It’s horrible. It’s horrible,” Grover said of the accusations and charges, fighting back tears. 

“It’s very difficult to watch, you know? To watch and to know that you can’t do anything about it. Why don’t we just move far away from here and get away from everybody? But you know, it wouldn’t have ended because this was national news,” Carroll added.

Both she and her mother deny that they rigged the election, and they told ABC News in November that they have hired investigators who are working to exonerate them. The mother and daughter also rejected a plea deal.

“We did not do what they say we did, and I’m not willing to plea out to something that I didn’t do,” Carroll told ABC News.

According to AP, investigators say that since August 2019, Carroll’s account has accessed 372 high school records, 339 of which were Tate students. What’s more, students at Tate told investigators that Grover admitted to her peers that she had used her mother’s school district access.

One fact that might work in Grover and Carroll’s favor is that even after discounting the supposedly fraudulent votes, Grover still would have won the title of homecoming queen.

Carroll and her daughter are currently fighting the case in court.

apost.com

What do you think of this case? Are Grover and Carroll lying, or does it seem like they might be innocent? Let us know — and be sure to pass this fascinating story on to others.