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Walter Griffith’s eligibility to appear on the May primary ballot as a Republican is on shaky ground because he’s now down to 251 signatures on his nomination petition — only one name over the minimum requirement — due to a still-unfolding court challenge.

At least 13 more signatures were flagged during a court hearing Thursday because the voters are not registered Republicans as required.

It’s unclear if these signatures also will be tossed out because Griffith, who was representing himself, objected. He argued the party registration of these voters was not cited among the alleged violations in former county councilman Rick Morelli’s complaint challenging his petition.

Attorney Lawrence J. Moran Jr., who is representing Morelli, told county Judge William H. Amesbury at least some of these voter registrations could not be researched until the election office presented additional information from its database during Thursday’s proceeding because the signatures were illegible.

Griffith started Thursday’s hearing with 267 signatures, county election officials said.

Amesbury disqualified the other signatures following a painstaking review of voter records in the county election office that ran more than four hours, prompting the judge to describe it as a “marathon” at one point. The reasons for removing signatures included missing dates, no record of voter registration and two cases in which voters signed Griffith’s petition twice.

The voting records of more than 100 petition signers were individually examined and projected on a screen, including a check of signatures directed by Amesbury to see if they matched those on Griffith’s petition. The judge rejected attempts to throw out variations of names that were different than ones on the official voting record — such as Ed instead of Edward and Bill instead of William — because he said such derivatives are acceptable under the law.

The judge also started accepting testimony on the other part of Morelli’s petition asking the court to deem Griffith ineligible to hold the controller post due to his criminal record.

Amesbury said he will review additional filings he requested from both sides before issuing a ruling, likely within two weeks to avoid delays preparing the primary ballot.

Griffith ended probation in September for his 2013 guilty plea on three misdemeanor charges of obstructing the administration of justice for recording three conversations without obtaining permission of those taped as required by state law.

The state constitution says people convicted of embezzlement of public money, bribery, perjury or other “infamous crime” are barred from holding public office. But a case law analysis would be necessary to determine if Griffith’s misdemeanor obstruction offense would fall into the “infamous crime” category, officials have said.

Morelli’s filing said this determination is based on whether dishonesty was involved in the crime, and lawyer Moran put Griffith on the stand Thursday to grill him about past statements involving the recordings as part of a “dishonestly analysis.”

Griffith has blamed himself for failing to research the law before recording a 2010 call with county pension fund officials, a retirement board closed-door executive session that same year, and a 2011 call with Y. Judd Shoval, a member of the nonprofit CityVest board that handled the failed Hotel Sterling renovation in Wilkes-Barre.

Moran asked why Griffith told state investigators he had informed Shoval’s secretary his interview with Shoval would be recorded — a claim the secretary denied. Griffith said his statement was that he may have told the secretary and thought he did.

Another issue Moran raised involved the county retirement board secretary’s insistence to investigators that he had no idea Griffith was recording a retirement board matter. Griffith told Moran on Thursday he stands by his statement he had informed the secretary.

Moran pointed to a news article in which Griffith had denied making illegal recordings, saying Griffith later acknowledged in a deposition he had lied to the reporter. Griffith said he did not realize the recordings were illegal at the time of the interview and was caught off-guard.

Griffith
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Walter-3.jpg.optimal.jpgGriffith

Morelli
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_morelli.jpg.optimal.jpgMorelli

By Jennifer Learn-Andes

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Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.