2 ex-top Oakland County Dems arraigned in tea party ballot flapMar. 16, 2011
Michael McGuinness, former chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party, left, and Jason Bauer, former operations director for the Oakland County Democratic Party, in white, look on with Bauer's attorney Michael Dezsi, center, during their arraignment at the Oakland County Complex in Pontiac on Wednesday, March 16, 2011. Written by JOHN WISELY - DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Two top Oakland County Democrats were indicted today for forgery and perjury for taking a political plan too far, Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.
"A scheme was devised by a party leader in Lansing to put people on the ballot on the Tea Party ticket," Bouchard said. "It may not be ethical, but it's not illegal. But some folks were placed on the ballot without their knowledge and that?s the criminal side."
Bouchard wouldn't say who was behind the plan, noting a grand jury investigation continues and requires secrecy.
County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper said the investigation was about criminal wrongdoing, not politics.
"We stand together, a
Republican sheriff and a Democratic prosecutor, to assure the public that this is not a political investigation or a partisan indictment," Cooper said. "The electoral process is sacred."
Oakland County Circuit Judge Edward Sosnick is serving as a one-person grand jury in the case. On Wednesday morning he unsealed two indictments charging Michael McGuinness, the former chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party and Jason Bauer, the party's former operations director, with
forgery and perjury. Bauer faces three additional counts of notary fraud because he notarized petitions of the candidates. The men face a maximum of 14 years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge of forgery.
The indictment charges that the pair attempted to place two county commission candidates, Aaron W. Tyler and Ruth Ann Spearman, and a state senate candidate, Johnathan M. Young, on the ballot without the candidates' knowledge. They
forged the signatures on the affidavit of identity and falsely swore under oath to qualify them to run, the indictment says.
A Free Press investigation found that Bauer ultimately notarized petitions for a dozen tea party candidates statewide but Bouchard and Cooper couldn't say if any additional charges would be brought in other races.
In addition to prompting a criminal investigation, the plot backfired politically when the Michigan Supreme Court blocked the candidates from appearing on the ballot.
The pair didn't speak at their arraignment Wednesday morning other than to acknowledge they understood the charges against them. They declined comment as the left the courtroom.
Oakland County Circuit Judge James Alexander entered not-guilty pleas for both men and released them on personal bond while they await their next court hearing, scheduled for April 13.
McGuinness is represented by Detroit lawyer, John Allen.
Bauer is represented by attorney Michael Dezsi, a former member of Geoffrey Fieger's firm who worked on the federal election cases against Fieger. Legendary trial lawyer Gerry Spence ultimately tried the case for Fieger and won an acquittal.
It
wasn't Bauer's his first brush with controversy. Bauer was suspended from his job a year earlier, when interns working for him submitted fake letters to Republicans on the Oakland County commission, urging them to support a plan by Democrats to provide more health insurance for poor residents. The letters were purportedly from a West Bloomfield mother and a retired GM worker who didn't have insurance. Several party members said Bauer should have been fired.
McGuiness was seen as a rising star in the Democratic party. After becoming politically active as a student at Oakland University, he ran Andy Meisner's successful 2008 campaign for Oakland County Treasurer and served as a consultant briefly on the Secretary of State candidacy of Jocelyn Benson. He became chairman of the Oakland County Democrats, replacing County Commissioner Dave Woodward, who was credited with engineering substantial inroads for Democrats in the historically Republican county.
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