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House Speaker Bob Kiss has agreed to investigate a letter that his education
chairman, Jerry Mezzatesta, sent to the state school superintendent.
Allegations have been made that Mezzatesta fabricated and then back-dated
the letter to fend off an ethics complaint.
Kiss's action follows Monday night's 3-to-2 vote by the Kanawha County school
board to petition Kiss for Mezzatesta's removal as chairman.
West Virginia Wants to Know co-founder Wanda Carney says it should be
simple for investigators to determine that Mezzatesta wrote the fabricated
letter in question after the state Ethics Commission began investigating
him.
Carney says Mezzatesta produced the evidence to make him look good in an
investigation by the Ethics Commission. which has already cleared him of two
complaints .
One investigation alleged he sought a $70,000 state grant for his employer, the
Hampshire County Board of Education. The other focused on the county pay he
received while serving in the Legislature.
The Ethics Commission has been asked to reopen those investigations.
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