A panel of three judges ruled Thursday that Mike Scheibe was properly elected to the Shenandoah County School Board, and a prior felony conviction from Pennsylvania does not prevent him from holding that office. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
L. M. "Mike" Scheibe II won a seat on the school board in November, but did not disclose a prior felony conviction or the date of his restoration of voting rights on a candidacy form. His opponent, Brent Wilson, challenged the election in the local circuit court.
In Thursday's opinion, the judges wrote that Wilson did present evidence that Scheibe signed a plea deal in 2004, admitting to felony criminal trespass and misdemeanor possessing instruments of crime on December 24, 2003. WMRA confirmed this conviction through a criminal record check from the Pennsylvania State Police.
To qualify to hold public office in Virginia, someone must be a resident of the commonwealth for one year, and be qualified to vote for that office. Pennsylvania felons, unlike those in Virginia, automatically get their voting rights back after being released from incarceration.
The judges' opinion says "a plurality of states permit those convicted of a felony by another jurisdiction for an offense not regarded as a felony under the laws of the prevailing state to hold public office. … A felony conviction out of state, without any further evaluation such as for equivalence, only precludes the right to a firearm."
They said an out-of-state felony's impact on the rest of a person's civil rights in Virginia "is an entirely open and perhaps unexamined question." But, they note the Pennsylvania felony Scheibe pled guilty to most closely aligns with a Virginia misdemeanor of unlawful entry.
As to the form on which Scheibe did not disclose the felony, he previously filed a demurrer which argued that an "alleged false statement" wouldn't make him ineligible to hold office. "A person may be ineligible to hold public office upon conviction of a felony for making such a false statement," but Scheibe has not been charged with this crime.
Scheibe and his counsel argued the wording of this question on the form should be interpreted as asking whether Scheibe had been convicted of a felony that would preclude him from holding office – as opposed to a felony or any other crime that would preclude him from holding office.
