Witness ‘Disgusted' Felony Charges Dropped Against Colin Small In GOP Voter Registration Fraud Case

WASHINGTON -- The Virginia store manager who witnessed a young Republican contractor toss voter registration forms into a dumpster back in October said Wednesday he was “disgusted” that a judge dismissed the eight felony charges against him.

Colin Small, 23, threw eight voter registration forms into a dumpster back in October, when he was working for a company the Virginia Republican Party hired to register voters. The forms had Social Security numbers on them, but Judge Marvin Hillsman ruled Tuesday that discarding the forms did not amount to “disclosing” the numbers. While the felony charges have been tossed out, Small is still facing five misdemeanor charges.

"I'm kind of disgusted with it because the defense used my testimony to basically get him cleared of the felony charges,” said Rob Johnson, the manager of the Harrisonburg, Va., location of Tuesday Morning, a home accessory store.

Johnson was on a smoke break when he saw Small toss a bag containing the forms into one of Tuesday Morning's dumpsters. He only went over to remove the bag because Small used the dumpster meant for cardboard and Johnson did not want to be charged extra for co-mingling recyclables.

“The defense attorney asked me if I had written down or memorized any of the Social Security numbers, I said no. He asked me if I had shown the Social Security numbers to anyone from the time I retrieved them from the trash until the time I turned them over to the police, and I told him no," Johnson said. "Apparently, that proved that at no time after he threw them in the trash were the Social Security numbers ever compromised. So therefore, on a technicality I guess you could say, the charges on the felony counts ... were dismissed.”

In Johnson’s view, Small only managed to dodge the felony charges because Johnson did the right thing.

“If they were found by someone less honest, that person could have done a lot with those Social Security numbers,” Johnson said. “Of course I did the right thing, and by doing the right thing, I protected him.”