'You are not going to be a constable in Lehigh County': Judge disqualifies Allentown constable-elect

‘You are not going to be a constable in Lehigh County’: Judge disqualifies Allentown constable-elect who was convicted of impersonating a police officer


After hearing a recitation of convictions in three states for theft, fraud and impersonating a police officer, among other crimes, a Lehigh County judge on Monday declared a Michigan man who won a write-in campaign for constable in Allentown ineligible to serve.

Lehigh County Detective Edward Ressler testified about Nicholas C. Douglas’ criminal record during a hearing before Judge Robert Steinberg on a petition to remove Douglas from office filed last month by the district attorney’s office.

Ressler said he and a colleague obtained certified court records showing Douglas has been convicted more than a dozen times in two Ohio counties, Mississippi and Michigan between 2002 and last year. Those convictions disqualify Douglas from holding elected office under the Pennsylvania Constitution because they are for crimes involving deceit or falsification, First Assistant District Attorney Steve Luksa argued.

Douglas, who appeared at the hearing via videoconference from his home in Michigan, testified that he had successfully applied to have his civil rights restored in Ohio and that he had turned his life around since his convictions, most of which are more than six years old. He added that he has earned a license as a pastor and ran for the constable job so that he could provide for his fiancee and her children.

Read more: https://www.mcall.com/news/elections/mc-nws-allentown-constable-candidate-disqualified-20220103-yspogqw5fbeitcjgnv7lwfc3ra-story.html
(Allentown Morning Call)