While a new Shenandoah County School Board member won a legal challenge to his election, there is an open criminal investigation into his conduct. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
L. M. "Mike" Scheibe II was sworn into his seat on the school board at the beginning of this year. A panel of three judges ruled earlier this month that a prior felony conviction from Pennsylvania does not prevent him from holding that office, as his opponent, Brent Wilson, alleged. WMRA confirmed the 2004 conviction for felony criminal trespass through a criminal record check from the Pennsylvania State Police.
But the judges did not weigh in on whether Scheibe may have committed a new felony by failing to disclose this prior conviction when he filed to run for office, as WMRA previously reported. In response to the question, "have you ever been convicted of a felony or any other crime that would preclude you from holding office," Scheibe marked "no," and left a line for the date of his restoration of voting rights blank.
Shenandoah County Sheriff Tim Carter confirmed that his agency has an open criminal investigation into these matters.
TIM CARTER: The information regarding the form came to light, basically, through a news report that I saw on the fourth of November, and then we internally here, in the Shenandoah County Sheriff's Office, had a meeting on the fifth. … From there, we opened up a case, and the case is basically confined to the public document. Is the information on the public document true? … We've been assigned a special prosecutor, and we're basically just at that point waiting to see how to proceed.
The Loudoun County Commonwealth's Attorney's guide to the use of special prosecutors explains a commonwealth's attorney can request a special prosecutor by filing a motion with the circuit court to have a case tried by a prosecutor from another jurisdiction. This scenario happens when the local commonwealth's attorney has a conflict or risks a perceived conflict of interest due to a personal or professional relationship to the case.
WMRA left a message with the Shenandoah County Commonwealth's Attorney's office and has not heard back. Scheibe previously directed our requests for comment to his attorney, Daniel Bruce, who declined to comment for this story. Two other attorneys representing Scheibe in the election challenge did not respond to an email request.
