Security firm figures in ARD program on pipeline case

Two security officials who worked on the Mariner East Pipeline construction project in Chester and Delaware counties have taken a step towards having the criminal charges filed against them by local prosecutors erased in the so-called “buy-a-badge” scheme.

On Tuesday, Common Pleas Judge Edward Griffith accepted the applications of Michael Boffo and Nikolas McKinnon to enter the county’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program, a alternative sentencing

program for first-time nonviolent offenders.

Under the terms of their ARD agreement, the two men — who both worked for North Carolina-based security firm TigerSwan — can complete the program if they do not work for security firms in Pennsylvania during the next 12 months; have no contact with the other defendants in the case; and give truthful testimony against any of the two remaining codefendants in the case, a pair of state constables who worked on the pipeline project as security guards.

The men had agreed to apply for the ARD program last year when they waived their preliminary hearings after having been charged in December 2019 by former county District Attorney Thomas Hogan. The charges alleged that the men conspired with others, including an executive with Energy Transfer Inc., the company that is building Sunoco’s Mariner East pipelines through the two counties, to illegally hire state constables to work as security guards on the pipeline.

Boffo and McKinnon both appeared before Griffith at the Chester County Justice Center with their attorney, Christopher Carusone of Harrisburg. Carusone could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

As part of the ARD agreement in both cases, a provision that the men perform a total of 150

hours of community service was withdrawn by the D.A.’s Office. The men will have 12 months to fully complete their ARD requirements.

They had been charged with conspiracy, dealing in unlawful proceeds, bribery, and restricted activity, all felonies.

Under the ARD program, defendants who successfully complete the terms of their cases can ask the court to expunge their arrest records. They are thus spared having a criminal conviction on their public record. ARD is usually granted in firstoffense driving under the influence charges.

The disposition did not sit well with pipeline safety advocates.

In a statement issued by a spokeswoman for the Del-Chesco United for Pipeline Safety organizations, West Whiteland resident Ginny Kerslake expressed disappointment.

“These out-of-state individuals allegedly helped orchestrate the scheme to use state constable badges to intimidate residents in their own backyards and neighborhood,” Kerslake said. “Letting them off the hook for dozens of conspiracy charges with this slap on the wrist feels like a slap in the face to Chester County residents.”

With the ARD disposition in the two men’s cases, there are only two of the seven defendants charged by Hogan’s office in 2019 still awaiting trial. Those are state constables Kareem Johnson and Michael Robel, who are accused of improperly working as constables while

they patrolled the pipeline construction sites in West Whiteland. The men are listed for trial before Judge Jeffrey Sommer, who earlier this month indicated that it would not be until later this year that they could be tried, largely due to COVID-19 restriction on jury trials in the county.

Two others, Energy Transfer executive Frank Recknagle and James Murphy, an owner of the Harrisburg-area security firm Raven Knights, have seen the charges against them dismissed by judges. The last defendant, Raven Knights executive Richard Lester, died last September at age 72.

Mariner East is a series of pipelines that will transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of volatile liquid gases such as ethane, butane and propane across the full width of Pennsylvania, from the Marcellus Shale region to a facility in Marcus Hook. The route traverses 23 miles through the heart of central Chester County, and 11 miles of western Delaware County.

It has sparked heated opposition in the community and been plagued by a series of runoffs and spills, including a leak of thousands of gallons of construction mud into Marsh Creek Lake last summer.

McKinnon, of Stafford, Va., was a senior security adviser for TigerSwan, an international security firm, while Boffo, of Jacksonville, N.C., was site security manager of TigerSwan.

According to the criminal complaint, rather than hire a private security firm, Energy Transfer decided instead to recruit and hire armed state constables, because of the power their badges would carry. (State constables, although elected officials, are not permitted to use their official position or badges for private security jobs, the complaint alleges.)

The men appeared at pipeline sites in Chester County as security personnel, wearing constable attire,

while armed and displaying constable badges. At least one was outside of his home jurisdiction, the complaint states. One actually encountered a Chester County Detective during an incident earlier this summer, according to accounts.

The D.A’s office complaint alleges Recknagel stated that he wanted licensed, armed and uniformed state constables to perform security, and that hiring onduty law enforcement officials was Energy Transfer’s “unwritten policy.” In order to accomplish that the complaint alleges he engaged in a “buy-a-badge scheme” in which the payments to the constables were hidden and difficult to trace back to the company.

The charges allege that Recknagel arranged “offshore” payments and hiring of the state constables. Hogan also said Murphy and Lester, ran the operations for Raven Knights.

Hogan maintained that Recknagel hid payments to the state constables and “used a shell game” to hide the payments.

When charges were dismissed at a preliminary hearings last ear before Magisterial District Judge John bailey, the attorney for Recknagle indicated he believed that Hogan had brought the charges against him not out of belief that he had intended to commit a crime, but for political capital with those opposed to the pipeline.

“Given the political backdrop of this matter, it is fair to say that politics animated this prosecution,” attorney Justin Danilewitz of the Philadelphia law firm of Saul, Ewing, Arnstein & Lehr said. “It is troubling to see politics intrude into what should be sound, fair, prosecutorial decisions. It is dangerous for politics to come into prosecutorial decisions.”

Hogan left office at the end of 2019.