Minnesota: Follow-up story.
Defendants in strip club voter fraud case say they were duped
Associated Press
Published Feb. 13, 2003
HASTINGS, Minn. - Defendants in a voter registration fraud case linked to a former strip club are telling stories of being duped or pressured into taking part in the alleged scheme to save the club.
Several of 94 people charged with forgery testified in Dakota County District Court this week that a person from Jake's Gentlemen's Club in Coates had approached them at bars in Red Wing and in Wisconsin, asking them to sign voter cards to keep Jake's open. Some said they had been drinking and saw others sign, so they did, too.
Former dancer Carol Finlay said during her hearing that she initially declined to sign the false registration card. But later, at a meeting with about five other dancers, a bar manager told them to sign or lose their jobs, said Andrea Ryan Anderson, an attorney for Finlay and another dancer.
``They questioned if they could register with the bar address,'' Anderson said. ``They were promised they would not get in trouble.''
Finlay ``feels she was coerced into this and duped,'' Anderson said. She said Finlay plans to sue club owner Richard J. Jacobson to recover her $240 fine and fees, and other legal costs.
The 94 were charged with felonies in October. County election workers raised questions when 89 registration cards postmarked Oct. 5 listed the bar as the voters' residences.
Jacobson had hoped the new voters would elect three sympathetic candidates to Coates' five-person City Council, according to authorities who said Jacobson hoped the new council would rescind an ordinance outlawing Jake's. A federal appeals court has upheld the ordinance after a 10-year court battle. Jake's has been closed since Oct. 8.
Jacobson is charged with conspiracy to commit forgery and to procure unlawful votes. He has since opened a strip club in the Mille Lacs County town of Bock, and has hired some employees from Jake's, said one of his attorneys, Randall Tigue.
Because most of the 94 defendants had only minor involvement in the alleged conspiracy, the Dakota County attorney's office is offering them deals under which they would pay $240 in fines and fees and have no felony record, said Phillip Prokopowicz, the chief deputy county attorney.
At least 30 defendants have accepted the plea deal. Prokopowicz said Jacobson and about eight others, including his mother, Marlys J. Jacobson, are challenging the allegations.
Several defendants said during hearings at the Hastings courthouse this week that they didn't know signing the voter cards was illegal.
``If I would have known that's what it was, I wouldn't have done it,'' said Rachel Auge, who said she was approached in a Wisconsin bar. ``I am going to fight it and hopefully the court will see it in my favor.''
Another defendant, Kari Miller, told Judge Rex Stacey she and her boyfriend had signed voter cards at a bar in Red Wing.
``I apologize,'' she said after entering her guilty plea.
``You don't have to apologize to me,'' Stacey replied. ``You shouldn't have been asked to sign that card.''
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