Published Thursday, Oct. 14, 1999 Felesky is married to Mercer County Recorder Marilyn Livingston Felesky.
His supporters -- including about 15 family and friends -- gasped, grumbled and sometimes laughed as they listened to testimony during the West Middlesex man's preliminary hearing before District Justice Ruth French, Mercer.
The case against Felesky is being handled by the state Attorney General's office since Mrs. Felesky and county District Attorney James P. Epstein are both Democrats. Epstein referred the case to the Attorney General to avoid a conflict of interest.
Felesky's attorney Joseph Valentino has said the prosecution is politically motivated because Attorney General Michael Fisher is a Republican. Valentino previously said the timing, with charges filed a month before the general election, was suspicious as well.
"I can't believe this." "This is our justice system," several supporters said.
Felesky, 62, of 21 Denanmen Ave., is charged with theft by unlawful taking or disposition and criminal mischief. He is accused of stealing campaign signs from Republican recorder candidates Rhonda I. McClelland of Grove City -- Mrs. Felesky's opponent in the general election -- and Judy Keeley Canon of Hermitage, who lost the primary to Mrs. McClelland.
Neither the Feleskys nor Valentino would comment on the case. Felesky is free on $2,500 unsecured bond.
During the hearing Wednesday, prosecution witnesses were called by Deputy Attorney General Scott Robinette of Pittsburgh. No defense witnesses were called, which is typical for a preliminary hearing.
According to testimony:
At 11:20 p.m. May 17, state police Trooper Terence Whalen was driving a police cruiser home on state Route 318 in East Lackawannock Township after his shift. Whalen, a 15-year veteran of the state police, said he saw a 1996 green Chevrolet pickup truck at a gravel pull-off near the Western Reserve Fish and Game Protective Association grounds. The truck, with its lights on, was parked partly on the road, facing east in the westbound lane, Whalen said.
Whalen said he turned his cruiser around and followed the truck, which he said looked suspicious and he thought might have had a drunken driver behind the wheel, for about 100 yards to Flat Road. The trooper said he stopped the truck and saw several "thick" stacks of political signs in the bed. Two of the signs were Mrs. Canon's and between six and eight belonged to Mrs. McClelland, he said.
The trooper said Felesky told him that he had pulled over the truck -- which belonged to his daughter -- because he had a medical condition and had to urinate.
The trooper said he didn't ask Felesky about the signs at the time and didn't know that Mrs. Felesky was county recorder. Whalen said he turned back on Route 318 and did not see any signs for Mrs. McClelland but saw one for Mrs. Felesky near Bend Road.
The trooper said he later called Felesky who told Whalen that he wasn't stealing the signs but that they were "knocked down by a person cutting grass in the Farrell area." Whalen said Felesky told him that he "just didn't want them lying there."
Whalen said he talked with Mrs. McClelland but never interviewed Mrs. Canon. He said he thought another trooper did. After noting that the grass along Route 318 was about 10 inches high, he said, he did not contact municipal officials in Hermitage or the Farrell area to see if crews were cutting grass and had knocked over signs.
Mrs. McClelland testified she had a thousand white, 21-by-24-inch signs on steel frames placed throughout the county. Ninety percent of them were posted by her and her husband, Terry. The rest were put up by family members.
Mrs. McClelland said she only knew Felesky enough to say hello. She also never told him to collect her signs and noted she was running against Mrs. Canon in the primary, not Mrs. Felesky,
Mrs. McClelland also testified that she never saw the signs that were allegedly stolen and identified them after hearing a description from police.
Her husband said he had replaced campaign signs for his wife Thursday before the primary election along Route 318. The signs were located on each side of the road, near a gravel pull-off and a nearby intersection. None of the signs was there the afternoon of the election, he said.
McClelland said he had a map that was never handed over to investigators that pinpoints locations of his wife's campaign signs throughout the county.
Valentino then asked him if he got permission to place the signs along 318. McClelland replied, "No."
Thomas Sherwin, a state trooper from the Butler barracks, said he interviewed Felesky on June 28. Sherwin said Felesky initially told him that he didn't steal the signs but picked them up after they were knocked down along Rombold Road in Hermitage.
Sherwin said Felesky later admitted that he took some signs from along Route 318. Sherwin said Felesky told him that he took two signs near Bend Road, close to a driveway near the Western Reserve firing range. The trooper said Felesky told him "he didn't know why he did it. It was a stupid thing to do."
The trooper said Felesky told him that he planned to return the signs to county Republican headquarters the next day.
Mrs. French Wednesday denied both written and verbal requests from Valentino to remove herself from the case. Neither Valentino nor Mrs. French would comment on the reasons for the request. Mrs. French told Valentino he could appeal her decision to Common Pleas Court. He declined.
