Last week, ex-convict Mark Frailey, 41, Spruce Creek, formally filed nominating petitions Tuesday to run for sheriff in Huntingdon County.
Before the week was over, Frailey’s candidacy appeared to be headed for trouble, but not necessarily due to his past legal woes. Instead a retired businessman was challenging the validity of Frailey’s petitions.
In October, Frailey was paroled from the Huntingdon County Prison on time served under a plea agreement. He entered a “no contest” plea on two counts of corrupting the morals of a minor. Both counts are misdemeanors of the first degree.
“I made a mistake, it is a big one,” Frailey said in an interview with The Daily Herald last week. “I paid the price for that mistake. I begged God for forgiveness and he does not remember my mistake.”
Frailey said he agreed to the plea so as not to force a trial. The original charges date back to June 2003 when the parent of a Tyrone Area School District student began to suspect her daughter, who was 16 at the time, was having a sexual relationship with Frailey. Charges were filed against him in November of that year. Frailey had been chief of the Tyrone Area School District police force and a part-time Tyrone Borough Police officer.
Frailey said he is running for sheriff because he has “some deep convictions because of my experience within the Huntingdon County judicial system.”
“My conviction rose from that experience,” said Frailey. “There are a lot of things with the judicial system that are broken and need repaired, from the district attorney’s office, the sheriff’s office and the jail.”
Frailey admitted that his record could come back to haunt him, but he said he was doing the right thing by running for office.
“It would be easy for me to stand on the corner and not get involved,” said Frailey. “But it is not the right thing to do.”
Frailey’s opponent in the May primary will be Huntingdon County Sheriff William Walters. He is serving his fourth year in office and is seeking re-election. The sheriff had escorted Frailey into the Huntingdon County Courthouse during his legal appearances before a judge.
Frailey said Walters should have a challenger.
“What is wrong with giving the voters a choice?” he said. “It is easier to change something from the inside rather than the outside. I have been very critical of the system. It takes someone with conviction to roll up his sleeves.”
Frailey said he is qualified for the job. He said he is a graduate of Crown College in Minnesota and has other training that led to past work experience as a county jailer and reserve deputy sheriff. He said for several years he was a pastor at a church.
“I would not advocate anybody going to jail, but going through the system is going to make me a better sheriff.”
The question arises as to whether Frailey, who has been convicted of a crime, can carry a weapon if he were to be nominated and elected.
Frailey told The Daily Herald he can carry a gun, but Huntingdon County District Attorney Robert Stewart III said there will be restrictions under the state law.
Stewart said a person convicted of corruption of minors could not carry most firearms normally carried by a law enforcement officer. He then looked for specifics in the law.
“He could carry a flintlock,” said the district attorney.
He also could carry a percussion cap firearm. Stewart declined to make any further comment on Frailey’s candidacy.
After filing petitions on Tuesday, Frailey made his formal announcement on Thursday.
The very next day on March 11, a retired Huntingdon County businessman, E. B. “Sonny” Heine Jr., asked the Court of Common Pleas to invalidate a majority of signatures on Frailey’s nomination petitions that would put his name on the May 17 Republican Primary ballot.
“Right is right and wrong is wrong,” Heine told The Daily Herald. “There needs to be a level playing field in every contest and I want that to be the case. These discrepancies should be checked out and verified.”
Former Huntingdon County judge Newton Taylor filed the legal document on behalf of Heine.
Taylor told The Daily Herald that the two petitions were fraught with errors because they did not conform to the commonwealth’s election laws.
In the petition to quash the nominating petitions, cited were scores of names of those who signed Frailey’s petition that Heine is challenging for various reasons.
“We are alleging that 109 of the 112 names on the two petitions are defective,” said Taylor.
Taylor said the legal document challenges all 103 signatures on one of Frailey’s petitions because the petition “does not comply with the Pennsylvania Election code.”
Some of the reasons for the challenges include that some of the signers are not registered in the voting district in which they indicated they lived. Others are Democrats, who can’t sign a GOP nominating petition.
“The law requires that there are 100 valid Republican voters,” said Taylor. “If 13 or more are stricken, Mr. Frailey’s name may not appear on the ballot.
When contacted by The Daily Herald, Frailey said he was unaware of the legal filing Friday afternoon.
“This is news to me,” said Frailey. “I did not do anything to deceive anyone. I thought everything was on the up and up.”
Taylor said one of the key witnesses at a hearing will be Sandra McNeal, Huntingdon County’s voter registration clerk.
Judge Stewart Kurtz has scheduled a hearing for Monday, March 21 on the petition motion.
