What Wheeling officials knew about Shapiro's record

In May 1999, Wheeling Village President Judy Abruscato, then a trustee and a public notary, notarized Stuart Shapiro's application to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement asking to have his criminal record expunged.

Abruscato says she does not remember notarizing the document.

"All I do is notarize the signature," Abruscato said. "I never even read anything I notarize."

Other Wheeling officials have known about the existence of documents showing Stuart Shapiro's prior criminal history for nearly a decade, yet no one checked their validity.

Shapiro, who was elected Wheeling trustee on April 7 but resigned before being sworn in, said his criminal record was first brought up behind the scenes during his 2001 election bid.

Wheeling village officials who knew about it accepted his explanation that he was a victim of identity theft, and as he wasn't elected, didn't pursue the matter further.

About two weeks before the April 2009 election, Wheeling village attorneys and some trustees were anonymously sent documents that detailed Shapiro's Florida conviction.

Village Attorney James Ferolo said that shortly after that, Shapiro showed two village attorneys a letter that sounded like the letter he produced for the Daily Herald, which stated the whole thing was a case of mistaken identity.

The attorneys did not keep a copy of the letter, Ferolo said.

"Stu maintained his innocence always," Ferolo said. "Following that he was elected, then we received the letter of his resignation.

"What we have in the record is Stuart decided not to take office due to personal reasons related to work. Stuart never admitted that he was a felon."

Trustee Dean Argiris, who has been on the board since 2001, said he and other officials reviewed the anonymously submitted documents, but it was not the board's responsibility to investigate Shapiro's past, and the whole thing became moot once Shapiro declined the seat.

"We had to be prepared in the event that something did happen," Argiris said. "Who is to say that the story that (Shapiro) has told to many of us for many years isn't true?

"The bottom line is, nobody filed a complaint to the state's attorney's office."

Abruscato said she wasn't among those who got the documents.

"I didn't see any papers or anything," Abruscato said. "All I heard were rumors. I learned a long time ago if we would get anonymous letters or anonymous things, we didn't pay attention to those."

Meanwhile, Argiris said Shapiro, who had been on the Wheeling plan commission for six years and on the zoning board for five, would have made a "great trustee."

"The guy didn't do anything other than wanting to run and support this community," Argiris said. "I think he would have been an asset on that board."