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. 

On October 15, 2012, Fayette County District Attorney Jack R. Heneks, Jr. made an Application to impanel an investigating grand jury. Foremost among the reasons cited for the impanelment were allegations of voter fraud/election fraud forwarded to his office by three Fayette County Election Board referrals.  DA Heneks' initial application was dismissed without prejudice for lack of commonality by then-President Judge Gerald R. Solomon.

However, on October 23, 2012, Judge Solomon granted the Application for the grand jury.

On October 30, 2012, a mere 15 days after DA Heneks' initial Application for a grand jury, and a mere seven days after Judge Solomon granted the Application, during a paid political advertisement, State Rep. Timothy S. Mahoney (D-51) made an appearance on WMBS Radio 590 and said the following:

(See YouTube Mahoney Pushed For Grand Jury 20121030)

Finally there were matters presented to the Election Board of Fayette County for consideration involving allegations regarding violations of the Election Code and/or Criminal Code arising from the November, 2011 General Election in Bullskin Township, chiefly regarding absentee ballots.

Another is an examination of the signatures affixed to the petition of Michael Cavanaugh (sic) to place his name for the Republican nomination for the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives in the 51st District for the 2012 election.

Other matters involving petitions and possible election code violations remain subject of possible exploration by the investigating grand jury should evidence lead in that direction.

The Fayette County Board of Elections has made referral of said suspicious circumstances pursuant to 25 P.S 2542(i).

25 P.S. § 2642:The county boards of elections, within their respective counties, shall exercise, in the manner provided by this act, all powers granted to them by this act, and shall perform all the duties imposed upon them by this act, which shall include the following:
(i) To investigate election frauds, irregularities and violations of this act, and to report all suspicious circumstances to the district attorney.

Today, November 12, 2015, the time span of the sealing of the 5th Presentment of Fayette County Grand Jury No. 2 reaches 11 months.

On Page 7 of the grand jury docket sheet, we see the last two entries made on 06/25/2015, nearly six months ago!

The entries pertained to two Orders by Presiding Judge Steve P. Leskinen -- which Orders granted Motions made by the attorneys for George P. Bozek and Cheryl Lynn Bozek for the "Transcript of any Testimony before Grand Jury that is Exculpatory."

As noted in the previous column, the Bozeks each have a preliminary hearing before MDJ Defino on 11/23/2015.  For the Bozeks, the judicial process continues.

This brings us to the 5th Presentment, and its continuing sealed status.

Here are some pertinent questions:

Why does the 5th Presentment remain sealed after all this time?  After a two-year tenure of the grand jury, one would think that the subject of the 5th Presentment would have been able to have been indicted, arrested, and arraigned in an additional 11 months time.

Speaking of time, if it will take nearly six months time (for the Presentments against the Bozeks to reach the Preliminary Hearing stage, is it realistic to think that in the time remaining in DA Heneks' tenure that he will unseal the 5th Presentment and see the matter through to its final outcome before he leaves office in January 2016, especially with the office's routine duties, and with the intervening holidays?

All indications, thus far, are that Heneks will continue down the road of prosecuting unsealed Presentments, while he ignores and refuses to comment upon the sealed 5th Presentment.

Fayette County citizens who paid for Fayette County Grand Jury No. 2. deserve answers.

Perhaps they will get them from DA-Elect Richard Bower when he takes office in 2016.  

Perhaps it will be DA-Elect Richard Bower who will take his duties seriously and who will unseal the 5th Presentment of Fayette County Grand Jury No. 2.

Perhaps the new year will bring the impanelment of Fayette County Grand Jury No. 3 with additional Presentments.

As mentioned in the previous post, two, formal, election complaints were filed with the Fayette County Election Bureau.

The request to inspect and or copy the formal election complaints was honored today because filed complaints are public records which are open to inspection as per the Pennsylvania Election Code (i.e., the law).

The following hyperlink links to a PDF file of the two complaints each of which were filed on November 03, 2015.

Please see:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_q6Npj2fC7abVp3WnVHeE5lbW8/view?usp=sharing

Confirmed today by Fayette County Election Bureau Director Larry Blosser, two, formal, election complaints have been filed with the Fayette County Election Board/Bureau.

Copies of the formal complaints have been sent to Fayette County Election Board/Bureau Solicitor Sheryl Heid for review.

Today, Fayette Searchlight attempted to retrieve copies of the formal, election complaints from the election bureau but was stymied in its attempt to review or photocopy the formal, election complaints.

When asked whether those filed complaints are public records, Blosser said that he is waiting on a determination by Solicitor Sheryl Heid.

When hinting about a visit to Heid's legal office to ascertain her answer as to whether filed election complaints are public records, a Fayette County Election Bureau staff member relayed that Solicitor Sheryl Heid was not in her office today.

Fayette Searchlight contacted the nearby Westmoreland County Election Bureau and was informed that complaints filed with local election boards/bureaus are indeed public records in Pennsylvania.

Update:
25 P.S. Section 1207(a)(4) provides that petitions (in this case, complaints) and appeals to the local commission (i.e., election board/bureau) are open to public inspection.