Posted on 03/16/2011 7:36:44 PM PDT by smoothsailing
by CHARLES CRUMM and DAVE PHILLIPS
March 16,2011
Two former Oakland County Democratic Party workers face felony charges from a six-month grand jury investigation into allegations of election fraud.
Jason Bauer, the former political director for the county party, and Mike McGuinness, the former county party chairman, were arraigned Wednesday in Oakland County Circuit Court before Judge James Alexander.
They were each charged with three counts of uttering and publishing and perjury, while Bauer also faces three counts of a violation of the Michigan Notary Act. The charges range from 1-year misdemeanors to 15-year felonies.
McGuinness and Bauer were given a $25,000 personal bond. Their next court date was scheduled before Alexander at 11 a.m. April 15.
The charges were released during an afternoon news conference by Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard and Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper.
Judge Edward Sosnick was the one-man grand juror impaneled six months ago to investigate the allegations against the pair.
Sosnick was asked to investigate allegations of election fraud, perjury, forgery, obstruction of justice and violation of the Michigan Notary Act leveled at the end of August by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and then-Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson.
Patterson and the other county officials asked for a grand jury to look at filings made by Oakland County candidates for The Tea Party group where signatures didn’t match their voter registration cards and after one candidate protested he hadn’t filed to run and was living out of state.
They also linked the filings to Oakland County Democratic Party employee Jason Bauer, who notarized several candidate filings. Bauer later resigned his position, as did Oakland County Democratic Party Chairman Mike McGuinness.
The Tea Party group’s bid for political party status was subsequently denied in a split vote by state canvassers, and appeals to the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court were also rejected.
In the grand jury warrant handed down by Sosnick, McGuiness and Bauer are accused of fraudulently entering Aaron William Tyler as a Tea Party candidate for District 2 County Commission in July.
After learning he had been entered as a candidate, Tyler sent a letter to then-Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson in August stating he hadn’t filled out paperwork to appear on the county commission ballot.
That alleged act resulted in a charge of uttering and publishing.
McGuiness and Bauer are also accused of making a false affidavit or swearing falsely while under oath for the purpose of qualifying Tyler as a candidate for office, resulting in a charge of perjury.
A third charge of notary public violation was also handed down by the grand juror, who determined there was just cause to charge the men after hearing testimony.
Because the grand juror is still sitting, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard and Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper were unable to release many of the details about the case or the investigation during a press conference.
Cooper, a democrat, noted that her office worked in conjunction with Bouchard, a republican, and the Sheriff’s Office.
“It is not a political statement and we need to make that very clear,” she said.
Bouchard also spoke about the cooperation.
“(Cooper) has worked tirelessly on this,” he said. “It was probably a more uncomfortable position than she would like, having some of these individuals involved with her own party. I’d like to commend her integrity and forthrightness to never ever take a pause.”
A total of 23 people statewide have been part of an investigation into the filings, which Bouchard said were concocted by someone in Lansing.
Eight of those people were based in Oakland County, and at least four of the Oakland County cases have proven to be fraudulent.
Cooper said she could not comment when asked if charges may be filed against more people, and when asked whether conspiracy charges might be filed, Bouchard and Cooper had the same answer: “The grand juror is still sitting.”
The act of filing as a Tea Party candidate under false pretenses was not illegal in itself, Bouchard said.
“Creating a false party is not election fraud,” he said. “It may not be ethical, but it’s still legal. Some folks were fraudulently placed on the ballot without their participation — that’s the criminal side.”
Hot damn. I’ve been waiting for this.
I’ll bet that there’s lots more!
Fake tea party charges.
RATS constantly want to play with fire. Fine.
This sounds like there’s alot more to this fraud scheme than just one lone Michigan county.
I forget which one but either Bauer or McGuinness was director of ACORN in Oakland county in 08 when some 30,000 fraudulent voter registrations were turned in.
All liberals lie all the time. It is surprising, but encouraging, that the scumbags have actually been charged, instead of getting a free pass.
Here’s a story from July 09 about Oakland county democrats sending falsified letters asking republicans to support Obamacare. McGuinness issued an apology.
http://macombdaily.com/articles/2009/07/31/news/srv0000005991410.txt
These boys need to spend some time in a federal prison.
What amazes me is that nationwide this kind of stuff is robbing the country of true election results.
No matter which party it is, it must stop.
The future of the Demwit party.
They failed to split the conservative vote.
And now they’re going to jail.
I love happy endings. :)
We’ve got Ruth Johnson as secretary of state now and she won’t be tolerating this kind of crap.
LIBs lie. So what’s new under the sun? Their are so determined and integrity-absent that they see everything as an opportunity. Never trust a LIB.
These guys are going down. This story is from late last summer.
WITH VIDEO: County officials call for grand jury to investigate election fraud
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/08/25/news/politics/doc4c756de5a7dbd093734349.txt
A lot more Dems will be going down on this one....the investigation is ongoing in other counties.
John Adler’s campaign tried this against Jon Runyan-R in NJ-03. Adler then denied he knew anything about it. Runyan won anyhow so that was a happy ending. Don’t know if there were any charges filed.
Source-Detroit News
By my math, they each potentially face 60+ years in the slammer.
The only thing that would have saved these guys was democrat wins across Michigan.
They’re screwed.
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