Last week, ex-convict Mark Frailey, 41, Spruce Creek, formally filed nominating petitions Tuesday to run for sheriff in Huntingdon County.
\nBefore the week was over, Frailey\u2019s 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\u2019s petitions.
\nIn October, Frailey was paroled from the Huntingdon County Prison on time served under a plea agreement. He entered a \u201cno contest\u201d plea on two counts of corrupting the morals of a minor. Both counts are misdemeanors of the first degree.
\n\u201cI made a mistake, it is a big one,\u201d Frailey said in an interview with The Daily Herald last week. \u201cI paid the price for that mistake. I begged God for forgiveness and he does not remember my mistake.\u201d
\nFrailey 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.
\nFrailey said he is running for sheriff because he has \u201csome deep convictions because of my experience within the Huntingdon County judicial system.\u201d
\n\u201cMy conviction rose from that experience,\u201d said Frailey. \u201cThere are a lot of things with the judicial system that are broken and need repaired, from the district attorney\u2019s office, the sheriff\u2019s office and the jail.\u201d
\nFrailey admitted that his record could come back to haunt him, but he said he was doing the right thing by running for office.
\n\u201cIt would be easy for me to stand on the corner and not get involved,\u201d said Frailey. \u201cBut it is not the right thing to do.\u201d
\nFrailey\u2019s 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.
\nFrailey said Walters should have a challenger.
\n\u201cWhat is wrong with giving the voters a choice?\u201d he said. \u201cIt 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.\u201d
\nFrailey 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.
\n\u201cI would not advocate anybody going to jail, but going through the system is going to make me a better sheriff.\u201d
\nThe 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.
\nFrailey 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.
\nStewart 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.
\n\u201cHe could carry a flintlock,\u201d said the district attorney.
\nHe also could carry a percussion cap firearm. Stewart declined to make any further comment on Frailey\u2019s candidacy.
\nAfter filing petitions on Tuesday, Frailey made his formal announcement on Thursday.
\nThe very next day on March 11, a retired Huntingdon County businessman, E. B. \u201cSonny\u201d Heine Jr., asked the Court of Common Pleas to invalidate a majority of signatures on Frailey\u2019s nomination petitions that would put his name on the May 17 Republican Primary ballot.
\n\u201cRight is right and wrong is wrong,\u201d Heine told The Daily Herald. \u201cThere 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.\u201d
\nFormer Huntingdon County judge Newton Taylor filed the legal document on behalf of Heine.
\nTaylor told The Daily Herald that the two petitions were fraught with errors because they did not conform to the commonwealth\u2019s election laws.
\nIn the petition to quash the nominating petitions, cited were scores of names of those who signed Frailey\u2019s petition that Heine is challenging for various reasons.
\n\u201cWe are alleging that 109 of the 112 names on the two petitions are defective,\u201d said Taylor.
\nTaylor said the legal document challenges all 103 signatures on one of Frailey\u2019s petitions because the petition \u201cdoes not comply with the Pennsylvania Election code.\u201d
\nSome 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\u2019t sign a GOP nominating petition.
\n\u201cThe law requires that there are 100 valid Republican voters,\u201d said Taylor. \u201cIf 13 or more are stricken, Mr. Frailey\u2019s name may not appear on the ballot.
\nWhen contacted by The Daily Herald, Frailey said he was unaware of the legal filing Friday afternoon.
\n\u201cThis is news to me,\u201d said Frailey. \u201cI did not do anything to deceive anyone. I thought everything was on the up and up.\u201d
\nTaylor said one of the key witnesses at a hearing will be Sandra McNeal, Huntingdon County\u2019s voter registration clerk.
\nJudge Stewart Kurtz has scheduled a hearing for Monday, March 21 on the petition motion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s 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\u2019s petitions. In October, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}