Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Forgery Is A Crime

The Allen County GOP's former executive director, Douglas Foy, is learning the hard way that it is a crime to forge another person's signature. Foy admitted earlier this year that he forged the names of 11 Republican township candidates on official forms to fill election ballot vacancies and now he's being charged criminally. The AP reports:

The former executive director of the Allen County Republican Party faces fraud charges, after police said he acknowledged he forged the signatures of 11 township candidates on official forms.

Douglas T. Foy, 41, of Fort Wayne, was charged with 11 felony counts of falsely making a declaration of candidacy or part of a declaration of candidacy, according to court documents filed Monday. If convicted, he faces six months to three years in prison on each charge.

A warrant was issued Monday for Foy's arrest, said Robyn Niedzwiecki, spokeswoman for the Allen Co. Prosecutor. He was not in custody as of Tuesday morning, she said.

The county GOP chairman fired Foy in August after he determined that the signatures had been forged on township board candidate filing forms. The Republican-controlled Allen County Election Board unanimously decided to remove
the candidates from the ballot after director Pam Finlayson agreed the signatures were not legitimate.

Three of the candidates said Foy told them if anyone asked about the signatures on the forms, they should say they signed them, according to court documents.

Foy presented a statement to the election board Aug. 11 acknowledging he signed the forms for the candidates. His statement said he only signed the forms because he believed a second, notarized signature was the official one.

"I in no way intended to cheat the electoral process or deceive anyone by signing these forms," he wrote. "It was an error on my part and I take full responsibility."

A few months ago, City-County Councilor Angela Mansfied discovered that someone had forged numerous signatures of individuals in her district to show support of a zoning petition for the controversial Savoy nightclub on 86th Street near St. Vincent Hospital. The Savoy's owner, Bill Mays, is also an investor in the controversial 300 East bar in the Julia Carson Government Center, which will be heard before the Metropolitan Development Commission tomorrow. The club was forced to close down after it operated illegally for more than a year when the MDC turned down its request for a zoning variance. Will Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi deal with the Savoy perpetrator(s) the same way the Allen Co. Prosecutor's office is handling Foy's forgery?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brizzi has known about those signatures since Oct. 4 and hasn't done a thing. He's a wuss.

Anonymous said...

What an interesting tie-together, AI. Brizzi should do something, but he probably won't.

And the MDC shouold deny this petition today, but they probably won't.

It's a government of half-lizards.

Unknown said...

would it have mattered if the people gave him permission to sign for them?