A political hopeful with a felony record could face new legal trouble for allegedly forging signatures on his nomination petitions in the race for Bradford City mayor.
Bradford Democrat Slim Lewis, 42, convicted of felony burglary and criminal trespass in two separate cases in 2002, withdrew his name from consideration on Tuesday, McKean County elections officials confirmed.
Had Lewis not withdrawn his name, Republican candidate and current Mayor Tom Riel was planning to challenge his nomination petitions.
A call to a listed phone number for Lewis was not successful on Tuesday.
Riel said the signatures of at least 26 people on Lewis’ ballot were forged, and one signature was from a man who had passed away in February — weeks before his alleged signature was affixed to the petition.
McKean County Democratic party chair Marty Robacker Wilder confirmed the allegations against Lewis to The Era as well.
“We, as Democrats, want to be as open and welcoming as possible to candidates for public office,” she said. “However, when someone forges the signatures of our members on election petitions, we can’t just sit back and do nothing. This violates everything we stand for as Democrats.”
Had Lewis been successful in his run for mayor, he would have been barred from holding office, as he is a convicted felon. Under Pennsylvania law, a convicted felon can run for office, but cannot hold office.
According to public online court dockets, in 2002, Lewis pleaded guilty to theft, a second-degree misdemeanor, and criminal trespass, a second-degree felony, in one criminal case; to burglary, a second-degree felony, and criminal mischief, a summary offense, in a second case; and to two first-degree misdemeanor counts of bad checks in a third case.
In 2004, he pleaded guilty to a charge of theft by deception, a third-degree misdemeanor.
And in 2014, he pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct, a third-degree misdemeanor.
On Tuesday, McKean County District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg-Shaffer confirmed her office had been made aware of the allegations regarding petition signatures.
“A report was made and an investigation into the matter is in progress by the McKean County detectives,” Shaffer said.
Wilder pledged the support and cooperation of the Democratic party with Shaffer’s investigation
“We are working with the McKean County district attorney in this matter and will cooperate fully with her investigation,” she said.
The questions came about when Riel started looking more closely into his opponent’s political filings.
“When I went over to file my petitions last Tuesday, I asked who else had filed” for the mayor’s race, Riel said. “I was told the only other person who turned them in was Slim Lewis.”
Lewis had two petitions, one with 55 signatures and the other with 56. One had a notarized seal that it had been circulated by Lewis, and the other by his roommate, Josef Godfrey.
“Upon looking at the petitions (in the courthouse) while another elected official was there, I pointed to” some irregularities, Riel said. For example, in one instance, a person’s name was spelled correctly in the signature line, but misspelled in the printed name line. In another case, Riel noticed the name of one person who had moved to Florida years ago.
“I didn’t make a big deal about it at the time,” Riel said, but he added that it bothered him. So he decided to contact a few of the people whose names were on the petitions.
“I stopped at somebody’s house yesterday and I asked them if they signed Slim Lewis’ petition,” Riel said. The man said he didn’t, and when Riel showed him a copy, he said it wasn’t his wife’s signature on the petition, either.
He checked with another person with a similar result.
“I talked to 30 people whose names appeared on the petition,” Riel said. “Twenty-six said the signature was not theirs.”
Riel spoke to an attorney and drafted a petition to set aside Lewis’ petitions. A hearing would have to be held within three days, and Riel would have had to subpoena the 26 people with whom he had spoken to testify at a hearing.
Instead, he visited Lewis on Tuesday. He explained that he was going to file a legal challenge if Lewis didn’t withdraw his name. Lewis agreed to withdraw.
Riel said, “I estimate from a look at 70 to 80 percent of the signatures on his petition were forged.”
He showed copies of the petitions to The Era. Several names were written in arguably the same handwriting. Others, Riel said, were from a couple who were in Albany, N.Y., the day they allegedly signed; from someone who left the area before Christmas and hasn’t returned; from a person in a long-term care facility out of the area, and similar stories from still others.
Riel said he sent his findings to the district attorney’s office.
“These are really serious crimes he committed,” Riel said. “He tried to defraud every citizen of the City of Bradford, not just those whose names were forged.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. I would have never thought anybody would go to such means to have their name appear on the ballot.
“He went against everything our elections process stands for,” Riel said. “He should be held accountable for his criminal actions.”
