DA: Mount Pleasant Supervisor Candidate Submitted Petition with Forged Signatures

Independent Mount Pleasant supervisor candidate Anthony D'Aria has been arrested and charged with five felonies after he allegedly knowingly submitted a petition with five forged signatures, according to a statement from the Westchester County District Attorney's Office.

D'Aria, of Mountain Road in Mount Pleasant, planned to challenge Republican incumbent Joan Maybury for the town's top job in November's election.

According to an article in The Examiner, D'Aria, 46, heads up a Briarcliff Manor-based investment firm and wanted to revamp Mount Pleasant's finances.

Westchester County Janet DiFiore said D'Aria "attested to the validity of all the signatures contained on an Opportunity to Ballot Petition dated July 18th, 2013, while knowing that the petition contained five forged signatures."

"Those signatures were filed with the Westchester County Board of Elections," the statement said. "The signatures collected on the Opportunity to Ballot Petition were for Frank Morganthaler, a write-in candidate, in the September 10, 2013 Republican Party primary for County Committee Member District Leader of Election District 28," the statement said.

The five forged signatures "of priests from the Legionaries of Christ, a congregation of Roman Catholic priests, located at 582 Columbus Avenue in Thornwood, New York."

The five, according to DiFiore, were actually in other locations on the date the petition was allegedly signed, including Maryland, Texas, Georgia and Brazil.

"The defendant possessed the petitions with the knowledge that none of these individuals actually affixed their signatures on the petition," according to the statement."

As a result, D'Aria faces five counts of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, Class D Felonies.

Following his arrest today, he was released on his own recognizance and is due back in Town court tomorrow morning. The alleged crimes carry a maximum sentence of seven years in state prison.

"In a democracy we have an expectation that the results of an election are the will of the people. When someone tampers with that system, as in this case by attesting to forged ballot signatures, a fundamental democratic process is breached. These kinds of actions are not politics. They are criminal and they will be prosecuted," said DiFiore.

Note: Arrests do not indicate convictions.

Editor's Note: This article's headline previously stated D'Aria had forged the signatures. It has been corrected.