Man charged with paying LA Skid Row denizens to sign ballot measure petitions

According to prosecutors, James Brass had people use names of real registered voters to sign petitions.LOS ANGELES (CN) — A Southern California man was arrested Thursday on charges of paying people on LA’s Skid Row to sign petitions for ballot measures using stolen identities.James Brass, a 47-year-old from Victorville who goes by “Lord,” was charged by a federal grand jury with one count each of identity fraud and conspiracy to commit identity fraud. He was arraigned in a Riverside court Thursday afternoon, where he pleaded not guilty to both counts, and was released on $10,000 bond.Two other men — 49-year-old Courtney Price of Florida, and 33-year-old Jateisha Herron of California — who prosecutors say were hired by Brass to collect fraudulent signatures, were also charged.“These defendants are charged with using stolen identities of registered voters to manufacture signatures on ballot petitions used to shape California law,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in a written statement. “They allegedly used people, including members of Skid Row’s vulnerable homeless population, to try to cover up their tracks. The charged conduct undermines the confidence voters have in our election systems."To qualify an initiative for the ballot in California, a petitioner must collect more than half a million signatures from registered voters living in the state. Petitioners have a relatively narrow 180-day window to collect those signatures, and any names that don’t match perfectly with that of a registered voter are thrown out. When a person or group wants to write a new law, they will typically pay a company to gather signatures — $5 to $10 per valid signature.According to the 12-page indictment, the three defendants used the publicly available list of registered voters to compile list of names. They set up a table on Skid Row, a neighborhood with one of the highest concentrations of homeless people in the country, and offered money to people to “copy registered voters’ personal information onto ballot initiative petitions and fraudulently sign the petitions in those registered voters’ names.”Federal prosecutors say Brass received around $41,600 for the operation.Brass instructed Herron, according to the indictment, via text message, to tell petitioner coordinators — the companies that paid them — that they’d collected signatures in Torrance or Inglewood, adding, “NEVER EVER SAY DOWN TOWN LA.”Brass’ trial is scheduled to begin in November. If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each count.Thursday’s indictment echoes one from May in which Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, was charged with one felony count of paying another person to register to vote, and pleaded guilty. According to her plea agreement, she offered people living on Skid Row $2 or $3 for their signature, and offered more money for them to complete voter registration forms.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads