A former Altoona man who is serving a state prison sentence on drug-related offenses has lost an appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court in which he challenged Operation Our Town’s funding of a position in the Blair County District Attorney’s office.

Thomas Rodney Rhone, 49, is serving a prison sentence of 15 to 30 years in the State Correctional Institution, Huntingdon County, after being convicted on charges of possession with intent to deliver, conspiracy and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He was sentenced on May 15, 2011, but throughout the ensuing years, has filed several appeals.

While his previous appeals were rejected by both the Superior and Supreme courts, Rhone raised two new issues on Nov. 14, 2022.

He noted that one of the charges against him was possession of drug paraphernalia, which included items found by police during a search of his home during the original investigation of his activities.

He contended that a friend of his was in his Bell Avenue home when police served a search warrant and that the friend only recently reported to him that the contraband found in the home belonged to him and was not connected to Rhone.

The friend only recently agreed to testify that the drug-related items found in the home were his.

The second issue presented to the Superior Court was that it came to Rhone’s attention that Operation Our Town, the community-based nonprofit organization that, according to the Superior Court, is “dedicated to protecting the community from illegal drug use and resulting crime,” has for years provided funding to the Blair County District Attorney’s Office.

The money is used to pay for an assistant district attorney and a support staff to prosecute drug cases.

Rhone argued the payment of private funds “robbed (him) of his due process rights under the Constitution.”

“Such a system encourages District Attorney (Pete) Weeks to prosecute drug cases so as to justify a privately paid salary,” the appeal claimed.

Blair County Senior Judge Daniel J. Milliron, who reviewed Rhone’s appeal at the local level, concluded it was an untimely petition and that the judge lacked jurisdiction to hear it.

The judge also concluded that the admission by Rhone’s friend that the contraband seized in Rhone’s home belonged to him and not Rhone did not warrant a new trial.

And, the challenge to the funding by the Operation Our Town of drug prosecutions also did not warrant a new trial, according to the Judge.

Superior Court Judges Jack A. Panella, Maria McLaughlin and John T. Bender, in their opinion last week, upheld Milliron’s ruling.

The appeals court panel explained that Rhone had a year from the date that his initial appeals concluded to file the present post-conviction petition.

Rhone claimed his most recent petition was filed within one year of the date on which the friend signed a letter admitting he was willing to testify that the contraband found in Rhone’s home was his.

The appeals court panel reasoned that Rhone knew from the beginning the contraband belonged to the friend and that he lacked “due diligence” by failing to disclose, or pursue, the information sooner.

Also, Rhone contended he didn’t know about Operation Our Town’s allocation of money to the DA’s office.

The Superior Court stated Rhone offered no date as to when he learned of the Our Town program.

But the appeals panel pointed out that one of the newspaper articles Rhone submitted concerning the Our Town effort to address the serious drug problem in the area was written in 2014.

“Rhone offers no explanation as to why he could not have discovered (the information) sooner with the exercise of due diligence,” stated the Superior Court opinion.

The panel noted that the news reports of the Our Town program were written seven years earlier.

The investigation into Rhone’s drug activities began on Jan. 30, 2008, when a city police officer executed a search warrant at Rhone’s residence.

During the search, police received a tip to check a truck in front of the house.

Officers first performed a “canine sniff” (by Bosco) of the vehicle.

The dog alerted on the vehicle and a subsequent search revealed cocaine and a .32-caliber pistol in the vehicle.

A jury found Rhone guilty on Oct. 20, 2010, of the drug-related offenses.