McKeesport councilman-elect barred from office over drug convictions

Corry Sanders is officially barred from taking the seat he won on the McKeesport City Council because of two 23-year-old drug convictions, an Allegheny County judge ruled Wednesday.

Sanders, 45, whose name is sometimes spelled Corey on court documents, ran for and won one of the four open council seats in McKeesport in November. He had applied for a pardon after winning the primary, but the lengthy pardon process wasn't complete by the time he collected the fourth-most votes in the general election. He went to the council's reorganization meeting Jan. 4 anyway.

“I was running in a race I wasn't supposed to win,” Sanders testified before Common Pleas Senior Judge Joseph James. “I showed up … to complete my race.”

The Allegheny County District Attorney's Office was tipped off about a pair of felony drug charges to which Sanders had pleaded no contest in 1993 and wrote a letter to McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko warning that Sanders couldn't take his seat.

Sanders owes about $36,000 in fines and restitution, including $11,400 in “buy money” an undercover detective paid him for nearly 110 grams of cocaine.

The district attorney's office filed a motion seeking to prevent him from taking the seat because of those convictions: the Pennsylvania Constitution bars anyone who's been convicted of embezzling public money, bribery, perjury “or other infamous crime” from election to the state Legislature or “any office of trust or profit in this Commonwealth.” The state Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that any felony could be considered an infamous crime.

Sanders' attorneys argued Wednesday that the motion was inappropriate because Sanders hadn't officially taken his seat on the council.

Sanders took his oath of office before Judge Joseph Williams on Jan. 4 and brought his paperwork to the reorganization meeting, then tried to take a seat at the council table, McKeesport solicitor John Elash said. He'd handed his papers to the city clerk but then took them back and presented the originals as evidence Wednesday that they hadn't been filed with McKeesport or Allegheny County officials.

Elash adjourned the reorganization meeting because of the uproar surrounding Sanders; the council has not reconvened since, he said.

Sanders' case caught the attention of many local politicians and leaders, including Sala Udin, whose federal firearms conviction stemming from his civil rights work never prevented him from holding a seat on Pittsburgh City Council; Braddock Mayor and U.S. Senate hopeful John Fetterman, who called on Gov. Tom Wolf to pardon Sanders; and New Castle minister Gary Mitchell, who was barred from taking office in his city under similar circumstances in 2011.

James ruled that Sanders' election victory without a pardon was enough to violate the state constitution.

Sanders, though disappointed by the ruling and the three to five years it takes the state to issue a pardon, said he does not intend to appeal and will remain active in McKeesport politics. If a pardon comes later, he said he likely would run for council again.

“They thought I would never win; they thought I would never show up. But I've never run from a challenge,” Sanders said.

Matthew Santoni is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-391-0927 or msantoni@tribweb.com.