Councilman faces perjury, forgery charges

Pittsburgh City Councilman Robert Daniel Lavelle faces charges of perjury and forgery after the… Pittsburgh City Councilman Robert Daniel Lavelle faces charges of perjury and forgery after the Allegheny County police concluded its 18-month-long investigation into a complaint he had committed election fraud.

According to the civil complaint against the councilman, Lavelle assisted in compiling a nomination petition for Jake Wheatley Jr., who successfully ran for Pennsylvania State Rep., District 19, in April 2010. The complaint accuses Lavelle of perjury and forging false signatures and statements in the nomination petitions.

The Allegheny County Police filed a criminal complaint last Thursday after concluding the investigation.

Lavelle began petitioning for Wheatley in February 2010 and was the first person to sign the petition. Lavelle presented the petition and affidavit to a Notary Public on March 7, 2010, certifying that all information in the petition was true and correct, and that all signers had filled out and signed the petition personally.

The offices of Wheatley and Lavelle declined to comment.

In March 2010, Tonya Payne, a former city councilwoman who ran against Wheatley for state representative and lost, filed a complaint that there were numerous fraudulent signatures on the Wheatley petition. Payne identified six names that she said had not ever signed the petition.

Lavelle faces charges of forging the signatures of Pittsburgh residents Leon Clark, Isaac Young, Joy Southers, Carla Duncan, Kim Adams and Donald Meyers.

The signature of former Pittsburgh resident Eric Whack, who is now deceased, was also on the petition. According to the complaint, investigators spoke with Paula Giles, Whack’s sister, who said that the signature did not look like her brother’s, and that she and Whack had been traveling around the time that her brother had allegedly signed the petition. But she could not say for sure if they were actually out of town at the time the signature was dated.

Clark, whose signature was forged on the petition, said that he doesn’t think Lavelle forged the signatures, but he believes that someone working for Lavelle might have done it.

“There was nothing that said Robert knew anything about this,” Clark said. “If somebody had asked me to sign the petition, I would have. But nobody has said that Robert actually did this. I’ve known Robert a lifetime. He and my son grew up together.”

Clark said that he used to work as a call tech at Pittsburgh campaign polls, and he knows from experience that representatives aren’t always the ones collecting signatures.

“I spoke with Robert about this, and he assured me that he didn’t know anything about the person that went out and got these signatures,” Clark said. “I believe him. I’ve known him ever since he was running around with a little snotty nose, and I don’t believe he did it. Somebody just took a shortcut and did something they shouldn’t have.”

Brie Latimore, a Pitt junior and communication science and disorders major who used to work for Wheatley, said that she doesn’t think Wheatley has anything to do with the forged signatures.

“Before my freshman year of college, I worked for Rep. Wheatley as his part-time legislative assistant,” Latimore said. “He’s really dedicated to the community and very proactive. I can’t even imagine this happening.”