Fayette Searchlight

Yesterday, 08/27/2018, via telephone, this space received confirmation from Fayette County Election Bureau Director Larry Blosser that the original documents in the August 9, 2011, submission of fatally-flawed referendum petitions and altered, falsely sworn, and perjured affidavits of circulator filed by then-State Rep. Timothy S. Mahoney have been destroyed by the Fayette County Election Bureau.

Blosser said the destruction was related to the election bureau's five-year retention policy and received assent from the Fayette County Office of District Attorney.

Blosser also said the original documents related to alleged voter fraud/election fraud in two other referrals made to then-Fayette County District Attorney Jack R. Heneks, Jr. by the Fayette County Election Board on May 24, 2012, also have been destroyed.

There is no problem with records destruction of original documents pertaining to the David E. Butler allegations which led to presentments against three Bullskin Township supervisors.  The supervisors went through ARD, paid fines, performed community service, and had their records expunged.  The cases there are closed. 

The destruction of the original records pertaining to the Mahoney allegations against Uniontown businessman Michael J. Cavanagh may seem to be in order, for time limitations pertaining to the allegations have lapsed.  Yet, due to the sealed Fifth Presentment from Fayette County Grand Jury No. 2, the unanswered question as to who is the subject of that presentment, and whether Fayette County Grand Jury No. 2 Presiding Judge Steve P. Leskinen's order to seal the Fifth Presentment will be lifted after more than 44 months, the original documents regarding the Mahoney allegations against Cavanagh likely should have been retained.

Blosser was confronted with the facts as to why the original documents regarding the Mahoney submission should not have been destroyed.  They should not have been destroyed because the matter was referred to then-DA Heneks for a determination (Third Referral), because the matter was included in his Application for the empanelment of a grand jury, because there exists a sealed Fifth Presentment (Page 7 of the next hyperlink) from the grand jury which has never been unsealed, because the grand jury docket remains active (not closed), and because, due to an extension on the time limitation which applies, Mahoney is yet subject to investigation and prosecution.

Current District Attorney Richard E. Bower was made aware of this extension of the time limitation in a submission letter detailing the allegations against Mahoney dated 06/15/2016.  Approached with prima facie evidence of election law violations where an indictment could have issued within a matter of days to stop the time limitations from running, Bower, for weeks, shirked his duty to perform the mandatory investigation in the case and knowingly permitted the general statute of limitations regarding the allegations on perjury against Mahoney to expire (August 9, 2016; August 22, 2016). 

Subsequently, in 2016, following his failure to perform his mandatory, statutory duty to investigate the allegations against Mahoney under 25 P.S. § 2642(i), Bower made a contribution to then-State Rep. Timothy S. Mahoney's campaign committee -- The Friends of Tim Mahoney (see the top of Page 4 in the link to the report).  Bower also became a listed co-sponsor of "The Democratic Radio Hour" heard Fridays on WMBS 590AM and funded, in part, by The Committee to Re-Elect Tim Mahoney (see bottom of Page 11 here).

While Fayette County District Attorney Richard E. Bower should have been investigating and prosecuting the case against Mahoney (or, more appropriately, recusing himself and referring the matter to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General because his campaign manager Lance Winterhalter's Office of Prothonotary notarized 48 of 50 of Mahoney's altered, falsely sworn, and perjured affidavits of circulator outside the presence of the already-filed referendum petitions to which the affidavits are meant to attest), instead, after allowing the general (i.e., not the extended) statutes of limitations to expire, Bower contributed to Mahoney's election in 2016 and, in part, as a co-sponsor, currently funds the radio program stumping for Mahoney's re-election in 2018.

[Now we learn that DA Bower's office had a hand -- in the face of his personal knowledge of the extended statute of limitations which applies to Mahoney -- in assenting to the Fayette County Election Bureau destruction of the original documents filed by Mahoney on August 9, 2011.]  RETRACTED SEE UPDATE/RETRACTION

Yesterday, a Right-to-Know Law request was filed with Fayette County Open Records Officer Amy Revak and with Fayette County Election Bureau Director Larry Blosser seeking communications between the election bureau and the district attorney's office regarding the destruction of the original documents in the Mahoney submission.

UPDATE/RETRACTION:

Fayette Searchlight issues a retraction for this part of the story above:  

"Now we learn that DA Bower's office had a hand -- in the face of his personal knowledge of the extended statute of limitations which applies to Mahoney -- in assenting to the Fayette County Election Bureau destruction of the original documents filed by Mahoney on August 9, 2011."  

This section of the article was based on incomplete knowledge.  The article section was written with the thought the original materials in matters referred to former District Attorney Jack R. Heneks, Jr. and included in his Application for the empanelment of a grand jury would be kept for at least as long as the general statute of limitations -- i.e., a five-year time period from August 9, 2011.  This would have placed the destruction squarely within the administration of current Fayette County DA Richard E. Bower.  Instead, according to an answer to a Right-To-Know law request, the Fayette County Office of District Attorney never provided direction to the Fayette County Election Bureau to preserve documents beyond their scheduled two-year destruction schedule.  Thus, according to Cheryl Karol at the FCEB, the Tim Mahoney and Michael Cavanagh papers and petitions were destroyed at the two-year interval.  Even hypothetically going off the May 24, 2012 election board meeting date (to be conservative), the documents would have been destroyed by May 24, 2014 -- squarely within the DA Heneks administration.