Board finds Aey eligible; sheriff plans to appeal

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Board of Elections ruled today that David P. Aey is eligible to remain a candidate for sheriff on the Democratic primary ballot.

Sheriff Randall Wellington had contended Aey didn’t meet minimum requirements of at least two years of supervisory experience at the rank of corporal or above, or at least two years of post-secondary education from an accredited college or university.

But the board ruled in a 3-0 decision — with Clarence Smith abstaining — that Aey’s stint of more than three years as a field supervisor for the U.S. Marshals Service’s Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force met the requirements of at least two years’ supervisory and that the position was equivalent to being a corporal.

Wellington said he would file an appeal of the board’s decision with the Ohio Supreme Court sometime next week.

As for Aey’s education, his attorneys acknowledged shortly after the hearing that the candidate didn’t meet that qualification. Aey received an associate degree from Belford University, described by experts as an online degree mill.

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