The chairman of the Schuylkill County Democratic Committee said you can’t always believe what you read, especially involving an email claiming to be from the schuylkilldemocrats@yahoo.com.

“I just think somebody for nefarious reasons is trying to undermine the Democratic Party and Democratic process,” Chairman Hugh Reiley said Tuesday about an email circulating about Sheriff Joe Groody.

Reiley said the listed address is not from the Democratic Committee. The official address is schuylkilldemocrats.com.

“We are looking into legal action against whoever sent this fake email out,” Reiley said.

The email claims to be from “a member of the county Democrat Committee” who is “appalled that one of our elected officials has stooped to this level. There are a few of us that are appalled and believe a race should be run on merit and not a smear campaign like Sheriff Groody and his campaign is doing. The screen shots that were sent were sent with his name in the contacts and the name removed from his contact to show it was from his phone number,” the email says.

The text messages purported to be from Groody’s cellphone mention Anthony Kodack and Doug Litwhiler. Kodack is the administrator of the Facebook page “Schuylkill County Sheriff Candidate Doug Litwhiler likes young girls.” The page alleges Litwhiler made inappropriate remarks to young women. Litwhiler denies the accusations.

Litwhiler said he is withdrawing from the sheriff’s race because of his family because of the allegations. He won in the primary on the Republican ticket last month to face off against Groody in November.

One of the text messages says, “Dougie should have listened to you when you said you’d ruin him. Thought he would have listened to you.”

The response is, “Roger that. I guess he didn’t believe me.”

Groody denied sending the texts. “I don’t even know Anthony Kodack,” he said.

Reiley doesn’t believe the texts are real.

“I do not believe what these texts say. I’ve known Joe Groody for a great many years and this is not how this guy operates. Joe Groody is one of those politicians that make the rest of us look good. He is open and honest, and what you see is what you get.”

He said “not one single Democrat, whether high-ranking or low-ranking, has contacted me with any complaints about Joe Groody’s behavior ever,” Reiley said.

Litwhiler said he was unaware of the texts/email and could not vouch for its authenticity. However, he said “it was probably someone that is close to him” who sent it.

He said Democrats have been calling him upset with how Groody is allegedly treating him.

“I’m not surprised that somebody got tired of it,” he said.