ST. CROIX — The Virgin Islands Board of Elections heard an update on the eligibility of prospective Senate candidate Brett “Mac” McClafferty and elected a new board secretary during a meeting Wednesday at the Elections System of the Virgin Islands on St. Croix.
Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes told the board she has forwarded a letter from McClafferty’s stateside attorney, Bradley Lehman, to Attorney General Gordon Rhea, along with a letter of her own.
Fawkes, in a letter sent on Tuesday, requested that the AG’s office verify the claims Lehman made and provide formal guidance no later than May 19, the final day for political aspirants to file nomination petitions.
After the meeting, Fawkes discussed the limited authority of the Elections System of the Virgin Islands and her office.
“My action on the letter is to send it to the AG, for them to find out if he has any felony anywhere,” she said. “That’s not our investigative authority; that falls under the AG’s office. That’s a legal matter.”
McClafferty has served prison time in Ohio after being convicted in 2018 and 2019 of multiple felonies, including theft, grand theft, forgery, and cocaine possession.
Following a jury trial beginning March 8, 2018, in Portage County, a jury found McClafferty guilty in case number 2017-CR-1115 of three fifth-degree felonies — two counts of forgery and one count of theft — as well as a first-degree misdemeanor theft charge. He was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $3,200 in restitution to Chemical Bank.
On February 21, 2019, McClafferty pleaded guilty in Summit County to possession of cocaine, a felony. He was sentenced to prison for seven months, to be served consecutively with sentences imposed in other cases.
In Cuyahoga County, McClafferty pleaded guilty to grand theft, a felony, according to a June 3, 2019 filing. He was sentenced to 11 months in prison. The court ordered the sentence to run concurrently with sentences he was already serving in Summit, Portage, Trumbull, and Geauga counties. Restitution of $30,000 was ordered to Metropolitan at the 9, a hotel in downtown Cleveland.
His candidacy has drawn scrutiny over whether he meets the qualifications set out in Section 6(b) of the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands, which bars anyone convicted of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude — who has not received a pardon restoring civil rights — from serving in the Legislature.
In his letter to Fawkes, Lehman acknowledged that McClafferty was indicted across several Ohio counties between 2014 and 2017 on charges related to alleged violations of the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act and his operation of Mac Contracting Inc. Some of those charges resulted in felony convictions, but Lehman said McClafferty pursued three successful appeals — two in Ohio appellate courts and one in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit — in which trial court judgments were reversed and remanded. The state of Ohio and McClafferty subsequently reached what Lehman described as a “global resolution,” under which McClafferty pleaded guilty to several misdemeanor violations of the Consumer Sales Practices Act in lieu of facing retrial on felony counts.
A global resolution was accepted in five Courts of Common Pleas across five counties in Ohio to resolve all pending controversies that exist between the state and McClafferty after six years of investigation and litigation, according to a court document filed on April 29, 2019. The global resolution required McClafferty to dismiss his appeal of conviction in Portage case number 2017-CR-1115, enter a guilty plea to an amended count of attempted identity fraud in Portage case number 2017-CR-775, and serve a concurrent sentence. On May 21, 2019, the Portage County court accepted McClafferty’s negotiated plea in case number 2017-CR-775 and sentenced him to one year in prison for identity fraud, to run concurrently with existing sentences.
Civil proceedings also highlight McClafferty’s troubled business past. In 2015, the state of Ohio obtained a default judgment against him and his company, Mac Contracting Inc., finding the business engaged in deceptive practices, including falsely claiming Better Business Bureau accreditation, accepting payments for uncompleted home improvement work, and failing to issue refunds. The court permanently enjoined him from further violations.
McClafferty appealed two journal entries of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas that purported to amend its sentencing entries in his two cases. He had already pleaded guilty to grand theft and cocaine possession and was serving prison time when the dispute arose. At sentencing, the judge awarded him 225 days of credit for time he had already spent in jail, which would reduce his overall sentence. Later, the court attempted to change the record and eliminate that credit through a procedural correction, effectively increasing his time in custody. On December 23, 2020, the appellate court ruled that this kind of change was not allowed because it went beyond fixing a clerical error and instead altered the substance of the sentence. As a result, the court struck down the modification and sent the case back to the trial court to properly address the issue in a way consistent with sentencing law. His convictions were not overturned.
Lehman, who is not barred to practice law in the Virgin Islands, argues that McClafferty’s Ohio convictions should not disqualify him because they are misdemeanor offenses that do not strip civil rights, and in any case, Ohio law automatically restores those rights after a sentence is completed. He further contends that the Revised Organic Act may not apply to out-of-territory convictions like McClafferty’s, since he has no criminal record in the Virgin Islands. Finally, he raises a constitutional challenge, arguing that the law is unfair because it bars such candidates from territorial office while imposing no similar restriction on those running for the territory’s federal Delegate seat.
Lehman also noted that when McClafferty was appointed to Governor Albert Bryan Jr.’s Advisory Council for the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a national criminal background check found his record suitable for the appointment.
In other business, the board also elected Barbara LaRonde to fill the secretary position left vacant by the resignation of Florine Audain Hassell, who had served in that role.
Cleopatra Peter nominated LaRonde. Lilliana Belardo de O’Neal nominated Cornelius Jason JnBaptiste. Board Chair Raymond Williams called for a roll call vote on LaRonde’s nomination, but Belardo de O’Neal moved that the election be conducted by secret ballot. That motion carried. Williams subsequently announced that LaRonde received five votes to JnBaptiste’s four and declared her elected as the new board secretary.
