An appellate court has blocked a convicted felon who comfortably won an election to be mayor of Ball from taking office, due to an amendment that passed on that same November 2018 ballot that barred felons from running for, or holding office for at least five years after their sentence. Roy Hebron’s attorney, Charles Elliott, says they are disappointed in the ruling.
“It seems like the court didn’t rule on all of the issues that we raised, one in particular related to the retroactive application of the constitutional amendment which didn’t come into effect until a month after the election,” said Elliott.
Hebron’s sentence on a FEMA fraud related charge ended in 2017.
Elliott says they plan on further appealing the decision, because the amendment did not take effect until after Hebron won his election with 56 percent of the vote, so he should be allowed to serve his term.
“Based on constitutional reasons, we believe the 3rd Circuit wrongly interpreted the constitution,” said Elliott.
Opponents argue that the amendment states convicted felons cannot run for OR hold office, thus disqualifying Hebron.
Elliott says this is partly the state legislature’s fault. He noted they added specific, applicable time limits to the unanimous jury verdict amendment that passed.
“Had a time limit, described who it applied to, they could have done it in this case, but they didn’t because they were trying to rework a previous amendment that had been declared unconstitutional,” said Elliott.
Elliott adds the town council elected a mayor pro-temp in the meantime, but did not ask the former mayor, who filed the suit against Hebron, to leave.
