A McKeesport mayoral hopeful who was previously pardoned for a 1993 drug conviction is now accused of being part of what the state Attorney General’s Office called a major drug ring in Allegheny County.

Corry J. Sanders, 52, was one of seven men charged on Dec. 30 following an 11-month investigation into drug trafficking in Allegheny County, according to then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who was sworn in this month as Pennsylvania’s governor.

Sanders faces four felony counts of possession of an illegal substance with intent to distribute and two misdemeanor counts of possession of an illegal substance, court records show. He was ordered to stand trial on the charges during a hearing last week. He is free on nonmonetary bond.

“Thanks to strong collaboration with our local law enforcement partners, we shut down a major drug trafficking operation in McKeesport,” Shapiro said in a news release.

While executing warrants, agents with the AG’s office seized nearly 1,500 grams of cocaine with a street value of more than $147,000, along with 16 grams of crack cocaine valued at $1,600, 8.5 grams of heroin valued at $1,700 and three firearms, Shapiro said.

Authorities said Sanders was part of a criminal enterprise headed by Curtis Harper Jr., 52, of McKeesport. Also arrested were Kaleb Howard, 33, of Wilmerding; Earl McClinton, 30, of McKeesport; Robert McLean, 60, of McKeesport; Isaiah Warren, 53, of Hazelwood; and Ramone Williams, 28, of East Pittsburgh.

Sanders’ attorney, David B. Chontos of Turtle Creek, could not be reached for comment.

‘This second chance’

The Pennsylvania Board of Pardons voted unanimously on Sept. 11, 2019, to pardon Sanders of 1993 drug convictions that blocked him from serving in office after winning a McKeesport City Council seat in 2016.

Former Gov. Tom Wolf signed Sanders’ pardon in 2019, his office said.

Then-Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, sworn in this month as a U.S. senator, and Shapiro both voted in favor of the pardon. The Senate office of Fetterman, who chaired the five-member pardons board, did not reply to a request to an email seeking comment.

At the time of his pardon, Sanders said, “This second chance allowed me to show and prove to others that my past mistakes were not my future destiny. Great things still lie ahead of me to achieve, and God is not through with me yet.”

Seven years ago, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office was tipped off about a pair of felony drug charges to which Sanders had pleaded no contest in 1993, and wrote a letter to McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko warning that Sanders couldn’t take his seat. Sanders took the oath of office anyway on Jan. 4, 2016.

“They thought I would never win. They thought I would never show up. But I’ve never run from a challenge,” Sanders told the Tribune-Review in 2016.

In February 2016, after Sanders had been sworn in, an Allegheny County judge ruled that the state constitution bars anyone who’s been convicted of embezzling public money, bribery, perjury or “other infamous crime” from being elected to the state Legislature or “any office of trust or profit in this Commonwealth.”

The state Supreme Court had ruled in 2008 that any felony could be considered an infamous crime.

New campaign, new charges

On Sept. 21 and Nov. 22, 2022, a confidential informant of the Attorney General’s Office bought cocaine from Sanders, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.

During the first buy, the complaint said, the confidential informant used money provided by AG’s agents to buy cocaine from Sanders outside of his car.

During the second, agents said the confidential informant bought cocaine from Sanders inside McKeesport’s Kool Kutz 2 barbershop, where Sanders was a manager and barber.

After Sanders’ hearing last week, Chontos, Sanders’ attorney, told The Mon Valley Independent that Sanders still intends to run for mayor in the May primary. The newspaper said he would likely face incumbent Mayor Michael Cherepko and Joe Lopretto, a longtime McKeesport Area School Board member and retired McKeesport police lieutenant.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)