Harrisburg mayoral candidate with criminal background is BACK on probation for assault

HARRISBURG, PA - A mayoral candidate of Harrisburg, Tone Cook, whose legal name is Ronald Cook Jr., is currently on probation for a conviction for simple assault. Cook was convicted in February and at the time, was fined $500 and given 18 months of unrestricted probation in Dauphin County Court. 

According to PennLive, Cook is among five Democrats running for the party's nomination for Harrisburg mayor in the May 20th primary. There are no Republican candidates on the ballot, and the Democrat winner typically goes on to be elected to office. In his online bio for running for mayor, Cook claims that his troubles with the law are behind him and that he's "turned his life around."

However, he is still on probation from charges that stem from a March 2023 incident at the Giant supermarket on Grayson Road. Court documents state that the sister of Cook's ex-girlfriend accused him and his current girlfriend of punching her in the face.

The incident was caught on Giant's surveillance cameras. Police said Cook was wearing a ring that cut the woman's face. She was treated at the scene by first responders. Cook described the incident as a "family situation" that became heated and "overblown."

He said in a statement to PennLive, "You got to know the situation. It involved my son who was just released from the hospital with open heart surgery. Do I have remorse? Of course. Did it hurt me? Of course. There were other options that I could have went about it another way."

He proceeded to deny punching the woman. He said, "I swung, but it was open hand. In the video, you just see my hand going in the air." As far as he is concerned, the incident is behind him. He said, "I pled out to hurry up and get it over with. I put it all behind us and moved forward with our life. That was an isolated family situation."

Court documents said that Cache Woodward, the woman identified as Cook's girlfriend, was charged with simple assault, disorderly conduct, and making a false report to law enforcement. Woodward was referred to ARD, the county's diversion program and sentenced to 50 hours of community service and anger management courses.

She was scheduled to remain in ARD and subject to probation and parole supervision for 12 months. Cook's bio for mayor draws heavily on what it calls his troubled past and his life-long journey to overcome it. In April 2000, Cook, the oldest of six brothers, was sentenced in Dauphin County Court to 27 to 120 months in state prison on a drug conviction stemming from an October 1998 case. 

He also received a consecutive six to twenty-four-month sentence for making false reports and concurrent six to twenty four months for tampering with evidence. These were all from the same case. 

Cook, who was 18 at the time, was charged with intent to deliver crack cocaine, seven packets of which police found in a hotel bathroom where Cook was staying. Court documents also said that when police entered the hotel room, an underage female was present and a stolen .38 special revolver was found. Police said Cook gave them a false name and attempted to wash the drugs down the hotel bathroom drain. 

In his bio, Cook touted this incident as one of his "second chances" and what lead to his "personal transition." Cook said the process of turning one's life around and achieving redemption is a daily struggle against making personal mistakes, such as the more recent incident at Giant. 

The other Democrats running for mayor are incumbent Mayor Wanda Williams, seeking her second four-year term; city Treasurer Dan Miller; first-term City Council member Lamont Jones; and repeat candidate Lewis Butts Jr. Jones successfully overcame his prior criminal record after it became an issue during his 2023 bid for City Council.

A pair of lawsuits attempted to force him from the general election ballot, and then after he won the seat, to bar him from taking office. Jones had a misdemeanor conviction in 1997 for making false reports to law enforcement and a pair of felony convictions for possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance in 2004 and 2005. 

The election-year lawsuits argued Jones' convictions were "infamous crimes," barring him from office. However, a Dauphin County judge disagreed. In December 2023, Jones received a full pardon for the convictions from the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons and he was sworn-in as a council member a week later.