Gherghel Threatens “Frivolous Filing” Counter Action
(For the April 5, 2007 Call, Schuylkill Haven, PA & the West Schuylkill Press-Herald)

By Bud Angst

While the election contests at the top of the ballots were relatively quiet this past week, the race for Controller generated enough heat to satisfy the most jaded observers of the SchuylkilL County political process. By week’s end, both sides were girding for legal actions, each blaming the other for ethical violations.

Adding interest to the fray is the fact that both candidates are residents of the Orwigsburg-Schuylkill Haven area, both have the official endorsement of their respective political party, and neither has any previous record of candidacy for elective office.

Republican Jason Gherghel, Orwigsburg, is a son of Radu & Judy Gherghel, also residents of the Orwigsburg area. The younger Gherghel is involved in real estate sales, while his opponent, Democrat Melinda Kantner, born in Tennessee, is a member of the North Manheim Township Planning Commission and the wife of Atty. John Kantner, a Blue Mt. School District graduate.

Gherghel campaign associates lit the fuse for last week’s fireworks by registering ownership of the domain name melindakantner.com, an action to which Kantner forces reacted Thursday with an official election fraud complaint to the Schuylkill County Board of Elections.

Gherghel responded by claiming such reserving of exclusive use of an opponent’s Internet address is “a common practice” of “many politicians.” Thus, Gherghel told the Call & Press-Herald, his forces are preparing a counter suit to be filed in the Schuylkill County Court charging “frivolous filing.”

A domain name is the official designation by which a particular “site” on the Internet is reserved in a central registry, thus becoming the exclusive property of the registrant

Gherghel’s use of the Kantner name, however, was not limited merely to reserving the name. As practiced in this instance, the use by Gherghel of Kantner’s name meant that any Internet inquiry to www.melindakantner.com transferred the caller to Gherghel’s own campaign website or, at the least, resulted in a message that the Melinda Kantner name was unavailable. As late as last Sunday evening, a message addressed to www.melindakantner.com still was being directed to Ghergel’s web page. (www.jasongherghel.com).

By Monday morning the Gherghel reference had been replaced by an advertisement for “Go Daddy,” an internet registration service. A further search, however, showed that the reservation on the melindakantner.com domain name was still in effect and thus was not yet available for use to Ms. Kantner.

The net effect was to “freeze out” Ms. Kantner from using the most common and familiar “dot-com” form of internet address.

Gherghel acknowledged the Kantner name reservation was made in his name but explained that he had since made an offer to “give it back to her.” He admitted to the Call & Press-Herald, however, that the offer to relinquish control of her domain name was not made by him personally but through a third person, “a friend who called her.”

The “friend” has been identified as David A. Schmit, Landingvllle, who purports to be a friend to both Gherghel and Mrs. Kantner’s husband.

Speaking of the name registration tactic, Gherghel said, “It’s a tool a lot of politicians use, but I don’t need it so it’s easy for me to just give it up.” However, he claims, Mrs. Kantner turned down the offer.

“If she calls, I’ll give it to her,” he said. “If she doesn’t call, I’ll probably just abandon it.” Mere abandonment, however – that is, simply failing to use it – would not necessarily make the name available to Ms. Kantner. In order to permit usage by another, Gherghel would have to take affirmative action to lift his reservation.

So far, Gherghel has declined to identify who among his supporters actually reserved the domain name melindakantner.com in his behalf but admits the reservation was made with his knowledge.

Regarding the identity of the specific person, “There is some conjecture about that,” he says.
The wide-spread impression, however, is that the work was done with Gherghel’s knowledge and permission and with the use of his credit card information. .

“It was my campaign that did it. My name, my credit card,” Gherghel says. “It’s my responsibility, although there’s nothing wrong in doing it.”

Gherghel also argues that the reserving of someone else’s name in such a manner is not necessarily “Cyber Squatting,” the name given to similar questionable actions in ordinary commerce.

Cyber Squatting, he claims, pertains only to “trademark rights.”

Claiming also to have consulted “legal advisors of my own,” Gherghel said, “We’ll be taking legal action on Monday.”

Such “legal action,” he said, will include a charge of “frivolous filing,” an obvious reference to the Kantner camp’s original request for an investigation by the County Election Board, As this newspaper went to press this week, however, a query at the Schuylkill County Prothonotary’s Office at the courthouse did not turn up evidence of a Gherghel filing.

Gherghel also claims his legal consultants have advised against giving back the name but “just to show I’m not a bad guy,” he says, “I’ll let her have her domain name back.”

The flurry of legal actions began just before courthouse closing time last Thursday when the Kantner forces registered a formal complaint before the Schuylkill County Board of Elections requesting an investigation of the Gherghel domain name registration.

The County Board of Elections consists of former County Commissioner Jerome Knowles, Tamaqua, chairman; Susan Koch, Tremont, former County Tax Claim Bureau Chief, and Atty. Lynn Bressi. Each was an appointee of one of the incumbent county commissioners. All three commissioners are candidates for re-election and thus cannot themselves serve as the election overseers.

The Kantner complaint requests the Election Board conduct “a full investigation “with the results to be referred to the County District Attorney for a determination of possible criminal action.”

The Complaint also requested the Election Board retain an “independent” solicitor for this matter “due to the active involvement” of County Solicitor Paul Datte “in the local political process.”

Kantner has been a vocal and persistent critic of Datte’s representation of private clients, particularly real estate developers who also have business pending before county and municipal planning and zoning agencies.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2007 at 3:06 pm and is filed under News.