The 7th congressional swing district saw a hotly contested race for the vacated seat of Joe Sestak.  Despite allegations that the Meehan camp forged petition signatures, Meehan went on to win the seat.  Authorites recently charged a Drexel Hill man who had no connection to the Meehan campaign with multiples counts of forgery and false signatures.   

Drexel Hill man charged in Meehan petition forgeries

By DANIELLE LYNCH and ALEX ROSE
dlynch@delcotimes.com
arose@delcotimes.com

Agents from the Attorney General’s Public Corruption Unit filed charges today against a longtime county GOP loyalist, accusing him of forging names and signatures on the 7th District Congressman Pat Meehan’s nominating petitions, officials said.

Paul V. Summers, 59, of the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby, has been charged with seven counts of forgery and seven counts of false signatures and statements in nomination petitions and papers, according to court records.

“I am pleased the matter has come to a conclusion and that justice will be done,” said Meehan in an e-mailed statement. “Paul Summers caused the integrity of the political process and my campaign needless harm. I came forward and asked that suspect petitions be investigated and I hope this result will deter others from ever considering any similar conduct in the future.”

Nominating petitions were a heated issue during the 7th District race last fall. Meehan, a Republican, won the race against Democratic candidate Bryan Lentz, a former two-term state representative, and third-party conservative Jim Schneller.

The attorney general’s office began the investigation into nominating petitions collected for Meehan back in April 2010 after receiving a referral by Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green. Meehan himself initially raised concerns and asked Green to review several petitions.

Summers served as an official circulator of nominating petitions for Meehan. According to information released by the attorney general’s office on Monday, after allegedly failing to gather as many signatures for Meehan as expected during door-to-door solicitations between March 6 and 7, 2010, Summers allegedly filled in empty lines on the petition forms with additional signatures.

He also reportedly was aware that other volunteers had falsified information on petitions that he submitted, according to court records.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Schneller expressed happiness that the attorney general’s office completed its investigation.

“We’re pleased that the justice system may be approaching the entire issue,” said Jim Schneller, who ran as the third-party candidate in the 7th district. “We wouldn’t want Mr. Summers to be a scapegoat. This is a direct result of our litigation and trying to reach some fairness in the 2010 campaigns.”

The allegedly forged nominating petitions were collected prior to the March 2010 Primary Election. The attorney general’s office began its investigation in April 2010 after being referred the case by Green’s office.

Even though the attorney general’s office announced an investigation was underway last spring, Schneller filed his own complaint in late August seeking an order to compel the office to complete the investigation of Meehan’s signatures.

Schneller filed his initial complaint a few days after Meehan supporters dropped a challenge in the Commonwealth Court against Schneller’s place on the ballot.

The Meehan campaign had argued that Schneller would not be on the ballot without the help of campaign workers for Lentz and Democratic activists who circulated the petitions. Late in the election season, Lentz admitted his supporters helped Schneller collect signatures.

The Meehan supporters eventually dropped their challenge against Schneller in late August following a series of decisions made by Commonwealth Court Judge Rochelle S. Friedman.

But shortly after, the attorney general’s office launched an investigation into alleged irregularities in Schneller’s nominating petitions upon receiving a referral on another complaint filed by Meehan supporters.

Attorney General spokesman Nils Frederiksen said the investigation into Schneller’s petitions and other candidates in the area will continue.

Frederiksen also said the charges filed on Summers effectively close the investigation into Meehan’s petitions. Meehan does not face any charges in the case.

“This resolves this particular case,” Frederiksen said. “All lines and all the evidence led back to Mr. Summers as the one who was involved in it, the one who was responsible for it, and the one who carried it out.”

Frederiksen said the office found problems on seven of the 20 petitions it reviewed. A Daily Times tally of signature lines in the affidavit of probable cause indicates there are potentially 80 alleged forgeries on those pages, including 41 from two women who told investigators they helped Summers.

The validity of Meehan’s candidacy was not the focus of the investigation, said Frederiksen. That was determined when Lentz withdrew his challenge after a Commonwealth Court judge barred certain arguments against Meehan’s nominating petitions.

Frederiksen said there was no evidence anyone but Summers was involved – aside from the two women named in the affidavit, both of whom have agreed to testify.

“That’s the way these investigations work, you follow the evidence as far as it goes,” said Frederiksen. “We’re confident that this is the extent of it.”

Upper Darby Democratic Party Chair Ed Bradley, who managed Lentz’s first two campaigns, said he felt the charges didn’t go far enough.

“I believe this indictment falls incredibly short of coming anywhere close to vindicating the people who were (allegedly) victimized by Paul Summers crimes,” said Bradley.

He noted his wife, Terry, was not among the 39 people the attorney general’s office interviewed, though it was her name appearing on a petition that set off the investigation.

Bradley said each and every falsified name is a separate incident of forgery which should be charged.

Summers was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Harry J. Karapalides today and released on $10,000 bail. He waived his preliminary hearing and his formal arraignment is scheduled for March 3 in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas.

The charges of forgery filed against Summers are first-degree misdemeanors, and he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine if found guilty. The lesser misdemeanor charge of false signatures and statements in nominating petitions and papers are punishable by a maximum of one year in prison and a $500 fine.

The case will be tried in Delaware County by the state attorney general’s office – now led by former Delaware County District Attorney Bill Ryan, who took over the office when Tom Corbett was sworn in as governor. Deputy Attorney General Michael A. Sprow of the Attorney General’s Public Corruption Unit will handle the prosecution.

Meehan defeated Democrat Lentz to win the seat vacated by Rep. Joe Sestak, who lost as U.S. Senate battle to Republican Pat Toomey.

Attempts to reach Lentz for comment have been unsuccessful, but Delco Democratic Party Chairman David Landau said this was another example of work done by the county’s “Republican machine.”

“There’s no place for this in politics today. There’s no excuse for this in politics today,” said Landau, spinning the charges into an indictment of the entire Republican Party in Delaware County.

“It’s the kind of thing we’ve seen with the Republican machine for many years, where they do what they can to get away with it and they let him (Summers) back in and this is the result,” said Landau.

He was referring to Summers’ forced resignation as head of the county’s Convention and Visitors Bureau in 1999 after admitting he allowed his office phone to be used for making political calls.

Summers is a longtime GOP loyalist who once said he would run head-long through a brick wall if Upper Darby GOP boss John McNichol told him to.

McNichol told a local reporter last year that he signed a sworn affidavit that he had gathered signatures for Meehan in Ridley Park, even though someone else had circulated the petitions.

McNichol’s petitions were notarized by Carol J. Miller, vice chairwoman of the Delaware County GOP’s Executive Committee.

Former Delaware County District Attorney Bill Ryan, Jr., became acting Attorney General when Tom Corbett took the oath of office as the state’s 46th governor this month.

“There’s ultimately a kind of moral responsibility and leadership responsibility to own up to these things and make sure they don’t happen,” said Landau. “It goes to the integrity of the process that elected Pat Meehan. …It seems to me that both the Republican Party leadership and the Meehan camp need to take some responsibility and need to review their process.”

But Delco Republican Party Chairman Andy Reilly had a different view.

“In direct contradiction to the conclusions of the investigators that the accused individual acted alone and not in concert with a campaign or a political organization, Mr. Landau takes a cheap shot to sling mud without any factual support,” he said. “Both the Meehan campaign and Republican elected officials as soon as they learned of the irregularities took immediate action to report the matter to law enforcement and prosecute any wrongdoing.”

Reilly said Landau should instead look to his own party regarding the Schneller signatures Lentz volunteers helped gather.

Joseph M. Fioravanti, Summer’s attorney, declined comment on the case.