Sometimes local elections are quiet affairs — sometimes they are not. The race for DeLand City Commission Seat 2 will take a decided turn to the latter this Saturday, July 27, when thousands of DeLandites will open their mailboxes to a flyer paid for by the Richard Paiva campaign.

The front of the flyer prominently displays a mugshot of Paiva’s opponent, Charles Harper Hill, taken after Hill’s arrest in a 2020 domestic-violence case. The back of the flyer liberally quotes from the charging affidavit, with sections highlighted in bright yellow.

According to police records, Hill, who goes by his middle name, Harper, was arrested in November 2020 after he allegedly pushed his wife down. Court records show that a charge of misdemeanor battery was dropped by the State Attorney’s Office two weeks later. 

“I believe strongly that the voters should know this,” Paiva told The Beacon. “Even if I lose the election, even if people think less of me, so be it. This is about way more than Harper and me. What does our community want in their representation?”

Richard Paiva is the father of Charles Paiva, a current commissioner in DeLand. Paiva the younger declined to run for re-election this year, which is when his father threw his hat into the ring. Hill is a fairly well-known insurance agent in DeLand who filed to run right before the qualifying window closed.

Until now, the biggest controversy in the race was that Hill publicly referred to the younger Paiva as his friend, leading Charles Paiva to write an open letter to The Beacon and The Daytona Beach News-Journal disavowing that the pair were friends. Paiva the elder also told a newspaper reporter he wasn’t sure DeLand needed three Rotary past presidents on its five-member City Commission, leading many Rotarians to take umbrage and send letters expressing their objections to the local media. In previous profiles of the race, the two candidates expressed similar positive visions for DeLand’s future. 

In an interview with The Beacon, Hill pushed back on Paiva’s categorization of the 2020 incident.

“In all reality, that was a misunderstanding. My marriage and my life in general is not a perfect life, but something that I work on all the time. I’m proud of my family, I’m proud of my marriage and my wife,” Hill said. “And I’ve never been charged with or or been convicted of anything in my life.”

“I think it’s unfortunate he’s decided to run a smear campaign,” Hill added. “I’m not looking to look into his past 75 years of life and what mistakes or challenges he’s had — I’m looking to move our city forward in a good direction.”

In an email to news outlets July 26, Paiva the elder elaborated on his view of his opponent.

“Harper Hill’s dark side (multiple criminal and civil legal cases, going back to 2001) has been known by some in DeLand for many years. Sadly, no one has publicly said, or done anything. That shameful silence and inaction — ends now,” Paiva wrote.

Court records show Hill has two criminal charges — one from 2001 for assault, and the 2020 domestic-violence case. In both instances, the charges were dropped. The clerk’s office website also has records of a couple of civil cases involving Hill and a previous relationship; two more involving his current wife. At one point in 2022, records reviewed by The Beacon indicate that four children shared by Hill and his current wife were removed from their custody for a period of time. The civil cases have since ended.

“The citizens of DeLand have seen plenty of Harper Hill’s public face (it’s even on his yard signs), it’s long past the time, however, when everyone should see his mug shot image,” Paiva concluded in his news release.

In response to a record request from The Beacon, the DeLand Police Department provided documents regarding an incident this year. According to the reports, police officers were called to St. Barnabas Episcopal School in DeLand on May 24 to respond to a potential battery. 

Officers interviewed Hill’s previous partner, with whom he shares one child, and she said Hill shoved her into a wall.

Officers were unable to corroborate that account due to obscured video and a lack of witnesses. At that time, no charges were filed. Around two weeks later, however, officers located two witnesses. Based on new evidence, the report reads, there is “… probable cause for charging Charles Harper Hill with domestic violence battery.”

In a situation when no one was arrested and a police agency finds probable cause after the fact, the case is sent to the State Attorney’s Office for review. According to that office, they were recently given those documents and “… there is an ongoing investigation into the incident.”

“My son is from a different relationship, and there was an incident when his mother picked him up from school on a weekend that was supposed to be my weekend, according to our parenting plan. So I called the police. She called the police, and they documented the incident,” Hill said of the May 24 event. “There was no shove.”

“Some people like to play in the mud, and that’s not where I’m going to go with my campaign. And it’s unfortunate that he’s decided to do that,” Hill added. “I will continue to put out a positive message for the city of DeLand and having residents understand the leadership we elect today affects the future of our great city. We’re going to continue with a positive message for our city, and that’s exactly what I plan to continue, meeting people, getting to know their needs and their concerns for the city, and looking forward to representing them.”

For his part, Paiva has no regrets.

“If I lose the election because of this, I know I will have accomplished something for DeLand by exposing him,” Paiva said.

Paiva expects the bulk of the 7,500 direct-to-mail flyers to be delivered to DeLand voters’ mailboxes tomorrow.

After this story was published, Harper Hill released an official response, seen below: