Citing felony conviction, DA’s office seeks removal of MVSA board member
Washington County prosecutors are seeking the ouster of a Donora man from the board of his local municipal authority in light of his conviction earlier this year for coercing a retired schoolteacher to part with her life savings under the threat of supposed retaliation by the mafia.
The district attorney’s office filed a petition seeking an injunction on Thursday, arguing that Yancey Taylor was serving as an appointed member of the Mon Valley Sewage Authority board despite being unable to do so under the state Constitution.
“(Taylor’s) unlawful appointment and his unlawful service as Mon Valley Sewage Authority director renders any acts, legislative, executive or administrative, conducted by the Mon Valley Sewage Authority in which he constituted a majority vote null and void,” prosecutors Jason Walsh and John Friedmann wrote in filings related to their request.
Authority solicitor Aaron Bialon was aware of the matter but said he hadn’t had a chance to review them and discuss them with the board as of Thursday afternoon.
“I’d rather wait, at this moment, to make any comment with respect to that,” he said.
The state Constitution makes anyone convicted of an “infamous crime” – a category including all felonies – ineligible for public office. State case law holds that provision to include municipal authorities.
Taylor, 48, pleaded guilty in Lancaster County to felony counts of theft by deception and extortion on March 22. He was sentenced to 14 years of probation and ordered to pay the Lancaster woman $159,000 in restitution.
Taylor stole the money over a period of about six months in 2013, telling the then-69-year-old that he’d use her money to pay a mob boss before earning returns for her through investments.
Taylor had no criminal convictions when he was appointed by Donora council to fill a vacancy on the Mon Valley authority’s board in January 2017, about four months before the state attorney general’s office brought the charges. But Friedmann and Walsh cited an ongoing “refusal” by Taylor to resign from the post and a “failure” by Donora and authority officials to remove him.
Donora solicitor Steven Toprani acknowledged a request for comment, saying he was in a meeting, but didn’t return a phone call before press time.
Toprani and Taylor have other political ties beyond the authority appointment.
Campaign disclosures with the Department of State show Toprani’s state House campaign made two $2,500 payments to Taylor – one listed in records as “office manager/payment for August to November” and the other listed as “illegible” – a year ago.
Taylor’s term on the authority board is up in 2022. The website of the authority – which serves Donora, Monessen and some of Carroll Township – lists his title as co-chair.
The prosecutors will present the petition in motions court on Monday before Common Pleas Judge Michael Lucas. They are asking the judge for an injunction stopping the authority from carrying out “any acts … in which (Taylor) was the majority vote” since the date of his guilty plea, and to nullify those decisions.
They also ask the judge to bar Taylor from serving on the board, and to schedule a further hearing to determine if the injunction against his doing so should be made permanent.