Charges filed in Delco against former Scanlon staffer and former Trainer mayoral candidate
The Delaware County District Attorney’s office on Wednesday filed four felony theft charges against Faith King, who previously was the Democratic candidate for mayor in Trainer. She also briefly served as a casework coordinator for Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District.
The affidavit provided by the district attorney’s office shows the charges are tied to allegations made by the Chichester School District in October. As Broad + Liberty reported at that time, the district sent a letter to Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer outlining numerous financial discrepancies the district discovered related to a football booster club while King held a supervisory role.
“The Chichester School Board was made aware of accounting discrepancies and the possibility of missing funds and/or items from the Football Booster Club,” in an amount reported to be around $12,000, the letter said. It also noted that King was the “signatory” for the club at that time.
According to the case docket filed Wednesday, King faces charges of “theft by deception” and “receiving stolen property,” and two other felonies.
According to the affidavit, a former treasurer of the booster club provided several financial statements to investigators, highlighting several suspicious transactions at retailers like Target, Walmart, Macy’s, and Applebee’s.
Yet even more costly than those transactions may have been “the lack of deposits being made back into the account,” the affidavit says.
The former treasurer also pointed investigators to numerous suspicious ATM withdrawals, one of which totaled $1,000.
READ MORE — Former Scanlon staffer and mayoral candidate at center of controversy over money missing from Chichester football booster club
“At this time, Ms. King has no comment,” James Gallagher, King’s attorney, said on Friday when reached by email. Gallagher is with the firm Kilkenny Law, LLC.
When the allegations first surfaced in October, Galllagher said, “Ms. King would respectfully respond that she performed her duties responsibly, ethically, and with fidelity to the booster club at all times.”
According to expense reports from the U.S. House of Representatives, King worked for Scanlon from the second quarter of 2021 to the same time in 2022 — a period of time that roughly coincides with her work with the football booster club.
When reached for comment for the original article in October that outlined the allegations, a spokesperson for Scanlon’s office said King was no longer employed there, and that, “The inquiry sent to the Congresswoman’s office today [by Broad + Liberty] is the first time [Scanlon] and her staff have been made aware of this situation or any similar accusations against Ms. King.”
Faith King was the Democratic nominee for Mayor of Trainer in 2021, a borough of just under 2,000 people nestled between Marcus Hook and Upper Chichester in Delaware County. She lost to Republican Marilyn Maher by a wide 62–37 margin out of 343 total votes cast.
Todd Shepherd is Broad + Liberty’s chief investigative reporter. Send him tips at tshepherd@s46680.p831.sites.pressdns.com, or use his encrypted email at shepherdreports@protonmail.com. @shepherdreports