BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Just last month Austin Harig came close to unseating Carl Paladino for the Park District seat, with Paladino beating Harig by just over 100 votes.

The 18-year-old was proud of his accomplishment and made a name for himself in the process, but now says that because of it he’s being singled out for an incident that he says wasn’t his fault.

“I felt like they were really intent on making extrapolations and just saying that I was responsible for things that I could’ve had no control over,” said Austin Harig, Hutchinson-Central Technical High School senior.

Austin Harig, former teen candidate for the Buffalo School board says a fellow 18-year-old classmate had nowhere to go, so Harig said he could stay with him. He says he was just trying to help a friend but unknowingly got himself into trouble in the process.

“The person I was letting stay ended up coming into my house very late at night about 3 am and I guess what happened was he had taken a traffic sign off the street and tried getting it into my house and failed. and so the police ended up following him to my house and caught him there,” said Harig.

Harig says he was asleep when police arrived. He was arrested at 4 am Wednesday morning, and says his friend was with two other teens, both age 17.

“They found alcohol on mark in his backpack I guess and since it was my house even though I didn’t do anything they said well this was you and I was like well no it wasn’t,” said Harig.

Buffalo police say Harig is facing two charges, including unlawfully dealing with a child for providing 3 underage individuals with alcoholic beverages, and criminal nuisance for allowing them to smoke marijuana at his residence. Harig says the charges don’t reflect what really happened and says he had nothing to do with the incident.

“These people were in my house for maybe 3 minutes before the cops came and I wasn’t aware of it at all and then all of a sudden they’re like you commissioned this you’re responsible, no I just let my friend stay at my house and he made a mistake,” said Harig.

Harig says he doesn’t regret trying to help his friend. He also says he’s confident charges against him will be dropped.

Harig was arraigned Wednesday and is scheduled to be back in court on June 17th.