Ex-sheriff Mason charged / By Martha Knight

BRADFORD—Former sheriff Bradley Mason faces is accused of two misdemeanors and a summary offense in connection with an alleged sexual relationship with a female tenant, then 17, last year.

Filed last Wednesday in Foster Township, in the office of Magisterial District Judge Rich Luther, the charges are based on an affidavit of probable cause supplied by Cpl. Curtis Wise of the Ridgway barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police.

The affidavit states that Mason made frequent visits to the tenant, with whom he had intercourse and oral sex at the house she rented from him.

The victim is alleged to have said a relationship between her and Mason started in December of 2013. Later in the alleged relationship the victim turned 18.

The affidavit of probable cause traces a history in which the tenant gave her age when she looked at the rental property in July of 2013, and stated her date of birth on a rental application.

Wise’s affidavit states that there were many text messages exchanged between Mason and the victim. In one he asked her whether she was 18 and she said she was, but in another Mason said he realized she was not yet 18 and mentioned possible serious charges and consequences for himself. At that point, Wise said, Mason asked the victim to delete their texts.

The texting between Mason and the victim took place between November 22, 2013 and June 4, 2014. There were said to be about 548 pages of the texts. Their tone became sexual last January, and there are allusions to getting together.

Other information came from a former roommate of the victim, who lived in the rental premises during the period when Mason was meeting with the victim. The roommate did not witness the alleged sexual incidents, but said the victim had told him about the incidents and had showed him texts. When the roommate had seen Mason at the rental house, Mason had said he was fixing something, according to the affidavit.

A friend of the victim told police about it last July 10, the affidavit says.

Mason is charged with two counts of corruption of a minor, first degree misdemeanors. The summary offense is one count of providing alcohol to a minor. The victim had alleged that Mason had given her alcohol several times.

A press release from Wise states that an unrelated civil dispute involving the victim was brought to the attention of law enforcement. Information provided in the course of that civil dispute had revealed a consensual sexual relationship between Mason and the minor, according to Wise.

Rumors concerning a scenario very similar to the one alleged in the affidavit of probable cause had swirled around the absence of Mason from his duties as McKean County Sheriff, warden of the McKean County Jail and coordinator of the county Emergency Management Agency, last summer.

The office of sheriff is elective, and the sheriff operates the sheriff’s department more or less independently, but with funding provided through the county and included in the budget adopted by the McKean County Commissioners.

The commissioners appoint the jail warden and the EMA director.

The salaries of the sheriff and other elective county offices are established by the county salary board, and by law must be established prior to the election when those offices are filled.

Mason’s salary as sheriff was $53,123, at the time of his resignation, and he was paid $30,000 as warden.

Mason took 15 days (three weeks) of paid vacation beginning in June of 2014. He then asked the commissioners for an unpaid leave of absence through July 14, and the commissioners granted the request.

At the time, commissioner chairman Joe DeMott said Mason was expected to return to duty at the end of his unpaid leave. A chief deputy sheriff was in charge at that department, DeMott said, and two acting wardens were handling jail administration.

Bruce Manning was at the helm at the EMA, and Andrew Johnson had recently become 911 director.

At the time Mason was said to be out of the area, possibly in Ohio, doing some private security work for a pipeline company.

By July 15 Mason resigned as sheriff and from other county duties. Chief deputy sheriff Jim Sharer became acting sheriff, a position he still holds. He also became acting jail warden.

Mason was in his third term as sheriff, having been reelected in 2009 and 2013. After a resignation the position must be filled by election in the next municipal election (an election to fill local offices, held in an odd-numbered year).

Mason had begun his law enforcement career in 1981 as a patrolman in the Port Allegany Police Department. Later he served in the Smethport Police Department and the Bradford Township Police Department.