Nov. 4--ERIE -- Organizers of the campaign that unsuccessfully attempted to recall Mason Consolidated School board members will not face criminal charges for allegedly violating state election laws.

The Monroe County prosecutor's office, which reviewed the investigation by Michigan State Police, said that the allegations of inconsistencies in signature gathering for the recall petitions did not rise to the level of criminal wrongdoing.

Assistant Prosecutor Michael Roehrig issued an opinion and finding last week in a complaint filed with state police by the four board members who were targeted in the August recall.

The investigation, which began in late April, involved petitions circulated by eight people to recall board President Sandra Dobbs, Donald Pearce, Wynne Phillips, and Kenneth Sieg.

Mr. Pearce, who resigned in July before the election, and the other school board members were targeted because of action they took in February that ended the employment of Thomas McGarry, who had been an administrator and teacher for 34 years.

The investigation looked into four sections of the state election code: circulator signature forgery, elector signature forgery, circulator misrepresentation, and circulator who didn't personally obtain signatures on petitions.

The review by the prosecutor's office determined that there were no instances of fraud as far as allegations that signatures of circulator and elector were forged or that circulators misled people who signed petitions.

In the review of accusations that electors didn't sign petitions in the presence of circulators, Mr. Roehrig said there were instances that circulators were not personally present when signatures were obtained on their petitions.

However, the prosecutor determined that none of the circulators acted intentionally in failing to be present when signatures were obtained.

"We have determined that the alleged conduct does not constitute a criminal offense because there is no evidence any of the eight circulators acted with specific intent to violate Michigan law nor that their actions or omissions resulted in an impact on the recall process," Mr. Roehrig concluded.

Mr. Sieg said he was disappointed in the outcome of the investigation, especially in that circulators didn't personally observe electors signing petitions.

"I am a little disturbed and upset," he said. "Don't have laws in the books if you plan to enforce them."

Mr. Sieg, a retired county sheriff officer, used the analogy of violating traffic laws to the enforcement of the election law.

"My question to the prosecutor would be what I had run a stop sign or I was doing 60 in a 45 [mph zone]. My intention was to never speed. How can you prove my intention in court was not to speed?" he asked.

Kay Axel, who was among the leaders of the recall effort, said she had no doubt that the campaign would be cleared of the charges.

She said that instances of circulators not being present when the petitions were signed was because of a lack of knowledge of the election law or unclear instructions provided by officials.

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