It’s been just under a year since Renee Rountree sat in Isle of Wight County’s General District courtroom as a defendant and listened as Judge Nicole Belote sentenced her to 250 hours of community service for her role in the theft of campaign signs belonging to Chris Torre, Rountree’s write-in opponent in the 2023 race that saw her elected as a county supervisor.

Rountree’s Class 1 misdemeanor charge of receiving stolen property was dismissed on Nov. 21 after the judge signed off on her completion of the required service, resolving the matter three weeks ahead of her originally scheduled Dec. 12 court date at the request of Rountree’s attorney, Ashby Pope. The dismissal means Rountree will not have a criminal record.

Court records show Rountree documented 251.65 total hours of unpaid work for six nonprofit entities between Dec. 18 of last year and Nov. 21, one-fourth of which were spent in her capacity as an already-serving board of directors member for at least three of the listed nonprofits.

Adam Klutts, president and CEO of the YMCA of the Peninsula, certified to the court on March 15 that Rountree, a member of the Y’s board, volunteered 3.65 hours as a board member from Jan. 25 through March 7.

Ashley Greene, executive director of the Western Tidewater Free Clinic, certified that Rountree volunteered 15 hours from Jan. 9 through March 16 as a board member and committee member.

Brad Mason, president of Resurrection Lutheran Church in Newport News, certified that Rountree volunteered 47 hours from Dec. 20 through March 20 as a member of the church board.

The majority of Rountree’s service, at 158 hours, or just under 63% of the total, was to Smithfield VA Events, the nonprofit that hosts the annual Bacon & Bourbon, Wine & Brew, and BOB Fests.

Marci Levine, president of the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce, wrote that Rountree had volunteered another 16 hours from Feb. 14 through March 20 as a facilitator for the chamber’s 2023-24 Student Leadership Institute, in which high school students from Smithfield and Windsor high schools and Isle of Wight and Nansemond-Suffolk academies meet with local dignitaries and industry professionals. Rountree had previously served as a facilitator for the annual event during the 2022-23 school year.

Larry Saint, president of the Smithfield Rotary Club, signed off on another 12 hours Rountree volunteered with the club.

Torre, who lost his write-in bid with just under 40% of the vote to Rountree’s nearly 60% for the Smithfield-centric District 1 supervisor seat, testified at Rountree’s trial last year that in October 2023 some of his yard signs began to go missing. Police were able to trace the missing signs to the 400 block of Royal Dornoch in Smithfield’s Cypress Creek neighborhood where Rountree lives by following pings from the Apple AirTag tracking devices Torre’s campaign volunteers had placed inside some of the signs.

Rountree’s son-in-law, Jesse Hanson, admitted to taking two Torre signs and loading them into the back of his pickup truck. Rountree testified she’d pulled the signs from Hanson’s truck and placed them in the crawlspace beneath her garage to spare Hanson from the situation, and said she’d planned to return them to Torre within a few days.

Hanson pleaded guilty the same day as Rountree’s trial last year to trespassing, also a Class 1 misdemeanor, and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and a year of required good behavior.

Rountree’s completed case file also includes a letter from county resident Bill Yoakum, who identifies himself as president of Chimney Hill Capital Group LLC, asserting Rountree to be a “person of exceptional character.” Yoakum is also chairman of the county’s Republican Party chapter.

“I believe that after experiencing the regrettable events that occurred during the October 2023 election cycle involving campaign signs and the punitive results stemming from those events, Mrs. Rountree was significantly affected, and it has given her a more focused outlook on the importance of her civic responsibility and conduct in the community,” Yoakum wrote. “I believe that she learned a valuable lesson and has used the experience to spark growth in her character that has enhanced her focus on doing what is right with a heightened level of integrity. … It is an honor to call her a community partner, my elected representative, and friend.”