Hi John,
I've poked around in the code and I'm attaching a hg export
  issue2550731-20130102ber.patch
it is NOT TESTED (as I ran out of time)

a) I've changed the states and the variable name
b) From browsing the code it seems that the email-sign-openpgp place
may not be working correctly in all cases. Emails could be only
encrypted or encrypted and signed. I'm not sure of reaching this code
point always means they have been sucessfully verified.
c) hg export applies to 4717:9dc50be521ee

Was the fact that you were using a remote postresgl database
important for the reproduction of your unwanted behaviour?


Maybe it helps!
Bernhard