Dems question speed of judiciary

MILFORD - The court’s ruling may have been correct, but why the blinding speed, Mike Meachem wants to know. Meachem, who is running for Prothonotary and chairs the Lehman Township Democratic Committee, was talking about the speed with which the Pike County government and courts disposed a petition challenging Mark Johnson’s nominating ballot petitions. Johnson, according to Meachem, was served by the Sheriff in Lehman less than three and half hours after the petition was filed. On March 6, Johnson, a retired New York City police officer and Lehman Township resident, had filed petitions to challenge incumbent Stephen McBride for the 60-3-04 magisterial district justice seat. The office is non-partisan, so candidates meet in the primary to gain both party’s endorsements. Johnson needed 100 signatures from each party. He thought he’d collected them from 136 Republicans and 149 Democrats. But on March 12, McBride filed a petition to set aside 65 Republican and 59 Democratic signatures. He charged fraud and also sought recovery of costs from the court. Judge Joseph Kameen notified Johnson of a March 14 hearing date; and this where Meachem’s question of time comes in. Meachem’s background is in retail where time is always an issue. “While everyone else read the petition, I looked at the time-stamps, when the five Republican held offices that the paperwork passed through.” • 9:03 a.m., McBride’s petition stamped in by the Prothonotary. • 10:04 a.m., Kameen issues order for Johnson to appear at 3 p.m., March 14. • 10:45 a.m., affidavit of service notifying Yolanda Goldsack, the county’s director of elections, of the petition. • 11:11 a.m., petition and order received for service by the Pike County Sheriff. • 12:14 p.m., Johnson is served at his home in Bushkill, 22 miles away. “Given the manner in which a lot of other people in this part of the county have to deal with the court, I think you would be hard pressed to find that level of efficiency in any other disposition,” Meachem said. The Courier sought a comment from Kameen, but through a spokesman the judge said he was prohibited from commenting on the matter beyond his ruling in the court record. Meachem said Johnson was out of town and was unavailable for comment as the newspaper went to press. Meachem attended the hearing and testified on behalf of Johnson, as one of his petition carriers. Beyond the speed of initial order Meachem said Johnson appeared without counsel telling Kameen he would represent himself, which the court record affirms. However Meachem says Johnson later twice requested a continuance to seek counsel and was denied. The court record shows Kameen denied Johnson’s one request to seek out “an expert.” Meachem said Johnson wanted counsel who was expert in election law. According to Meachem, Kameen said the matter was time sensitive and would be heard that day. The court record does not include this language. The court record shows Johnson generally admitted, but did not stipulate to errors in his petitions, some of which contained Democratic signatures on a Republican form. Kameen denied Johnson’s request to transfer them to a Democratic petition, saying doing so was “clearly prohibited” in the law. In ordering against certification for Johnson, Kameen said his errors were those of carelessness and did not rise to the level of fraud. Meachem said Johnson will run a write-in campaign. He said the incident again shows the county’s lack of recognition of the southern, populous part of Pike, of those “who are not Republicans.”