El Dorado County political operative arrested

Updated April 21 2:43pm:

A one-time worker for the El Dorado County’s Republican Party who has worked on numerous political campaigns has been arrested on felony willful infliction of corporal injury of a cohabitant charges.

Rodney Stanhope, 47, is married, but the alleged victim was not his wife. The Placerville resident was arrested earlier this month.

Stanhope was a paid consultant on the failed Mike Owen for county auditor campaign in 2014. Stanhope also worked on the campaigns of disgraced former Supervisor Ray Nutting, Sheriff John D’Agostini, Rep. Tom McClintock, and Assemblywoman Beth Gaines. In 2011, Stanhope represented Gaines at a campaign function.

Most recently, Stanhope was working with the Dave Pratt’s 2016 supervisorial campaign.

This is not Stanhope’s first run-in with the law. In 2009, a Central Valley couple sought a restraining order to stop Stanhope from, among other things, harassing their 14-year-old daughter. In 2012, a Pollock Pines woman sought a restraining order to stop Stanhope from sending her threatening text messages.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report