In 2004, Mezzatesta and his wife, Mary Lou, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge that they altered and destroyed legislative computer records.[2] Mezzatesta lost his re-election bid that same year to Ruth Rowan.[3] In April 2005, he was fired from his $60,000-a-year job with the Hampshire County Board of Education.[4]
In 2005, the West Virginia Ethics Commission found that Mezzatesta had violated an agreement to not use his legislative position to solicit funds for the county's school system.[2] They subsequently fined him $2000.[5] In September 2006, a federal grand jury indicted him and former Hampshire County Schools Superintendent David Friend on two counts of fraud and misappropriation of funds.[6] However, on March 30, 2007, Mezzatesta and Friend were acquitted.[2] On April 23, 2009, Judge C. Reeves Taylor ruled that Mezzatesta should get his job back in the Hampshire County school system. Clearing him of the alleged ethics violations, Judge Taylor wrote that "from the record there was no agreement between the Ethics Commission and Mezzatesta at the time held the position (as a school board employee), merely a request made by him to the commission and an advisory opinion made by (the Ethics Commission) and conveyed to (Mezzatesta)."[citation needed] The school board paid Mezzatesta a $192,000 settlement in lieu of rehiring him.[7]
^ abc"Mezzatesta cleared: Ex-delegate and Hampshire schools ex-chief faced federal fraud charges". The Charleston Gazette. Charleston, W.V. The Associated Press. March 31, 2007. p. 1A.
