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| Jocelyn-Tandy Adande |
Adande's complaint, which is based largely on questions raised in earlier reporting by Advance Indiana, alleges Brewer registered to vote in Center Township Precinct No. 11-2 in 2011. Brewer later updated his voter registration to reflect a new registered voting address at an apartment complex in Perry Township on Dakota Ridge before changing it yet again to another apartment complex in Perry Township on Slate Drive. Brewer updated his registration to Precinct No. PE-29 to reflect a voting residence located at 623 Slate Drive, Apt. #B on July 15, 2014, only weeks after he filed paperwork with the Marion Co. Board of Elections to form an exploratory campaign committee to run for the District 23 City-County Council seat in Perry Township. Brewer filed a statement of organization to form a political committee to seek election to District 23 formally on December 31, 2014.
In her complaint, Adande cites evidence that Brewer still claims a homestead exemption on the condominium he owns in the Athletic Club since he first recorded a mortgage on it dated March 21, 2011 underwritten by Sierra Pacific Mortgage Company. He later refinanced the original mortgage with a new mortgage underwritten by Wells Fargo in the original principal amount of $380,000, which shows a recording date of December 29, 2014. Days after Brewer filed paperwork to run in District 23, he changed his mind and decided to run for Indianapolis mayor in the Republican primary instead with the backing of the Marion Co. Republican Party leadership. When Brewer filed his statement of candidacy with the Marion Co. Board of Elections on February 5, 2015, he cited the Slate Drive address as his registered voting address.
Based on records contained in the Statewide Voter Registration System database, Brewer voted absentee in person at early walk-in voting in both the 2014 primary and general elections. By all appearances, Brewer's change in voter registration was motivated to take advantage of the open District 23 seat on the City-County Council that was created as a result of redistricting. Advance Indiana has learned Brewer has had a real estate listing offering his Athletic Club condominium for sale over the past year, although it's unclear why he would refinance the mortgage on the home if he planned to sell it. A former general manager who worked for Brewer's Potbelly Sandwich Shop, Sarah Hoyt, told Advance Indiana she believed Brewer still resided in his downtown condominium up to the time she stopped working for him last September. The dial-up directory for the building's secured entrance still listed Brewer as a residence as of last Friday.
On its face, Adande's complaint against Brewer is similar to the complaint attorney Greg Purvis filed against Charlie White when he was seeking election as Indiana Secretary of State. Although White easily won elected in the 2010 general election over Democrat Vop Osili, a special prosecutor later charged White with several felony counts, including illegally registering and casting votes in a precinct in which he did not reside and making false statements in a mortgage application on a new condominium he purchased as his primary residence. A jury found White guilty of the vote fraud charges and other charges but acquitted him of the mortgage fraud count. He was forced to resign his office following the jury's verdict of guilt. The Indiana Court of Appeals recently threw out two vote fraud charges based on double jeopardy and a marriage license application fraud count but allowed two remaining vote fraud counts and a theft count for drawing his salary as a Fishers Town Council member while he wasn't residing in his district to stand.
In the 2012 Senate primary election, Greg Wright filed a vote fraud complaint against then-Sen. Richard Lugar, who was seeking re-election to a seventh term. Wright documented the fact that Lugar had sold the home at which he had been registered to vote for the past 35 years since his first election to the U.S. Senate back in 1979, but he and his wife continued using it as a registered voting address all of those years. The Marion Co. Board of Elections ruled Lugar and his wife were illegally registered to vote; however, it allowed him to re-register in another precinct in which he owned an old farmhouse without referring the case to the prosecutor for prosecution. Advance Indiana's Gary Welsh represented Wright in that matter.
UPDATE: Adande notified Advance Indiana that she filed her complaint earlier this afternoon. Adande also advised that the December 29, 2014 mortgage recording was an assignment of Sierra Pacific's interest in the mortgage on the condominium to Wells Fargo, not an actual refinancing, according to records she obtained from the Marion Co. Recorder's Office.
UPDATE II: The Indianapolis Star's Brian Eason has put a story online now. Brewer's campaign is calling Adande's complaint "desperate false allegations" by an opponent. "Her complaint asks the board to determine whether Brewer is legally registered to vote, which could disqualify him from a mayoral bid," Eason writes. That's not necessarily so. Adande's complaint does not accuse Brewer of failing to satisfy residency requirements to run for mayor; rather, it accuses him of being illegally registered in the wrong precinct. The Marion Co. Board of Elections could conclude he is registered to vote in the wrong precinct without disqualifying him to run for mayor. Only if he were convicted of a crime like Charlie White was in regards to his voter registration could he be disqualified. His story notes that it is a felony under state law "to knowingly provide false information on a voter registration form."
UPDATE III: Note that the Secretary of State's registered business address for Brewer's business, Crimson Circle, LLC, currently lists Brewer as its registered agent at the 350 N. Meridian Street, Unit #207 address at the Athletic Club. Click here to view it.
OK, the question is this: Would the complaint be summarily dismissed because it is irrelevant if he lives at either address, he may run for Mayor? After all they are both in The City.
ReplyDeleteHer complaint doesn't challenge his residency for purposes of running for mayor; it challenges the place of his voter registration. The law requires you to register in the precinct in which your true, fixed and permanent place of residence is located. The election board has jurisdiction to consider whether a person is legally registered to vote in the proper precinct.
ReplyDeleteNo matter the results of this, this proves why Gary is my hero. Even though I am an anarchist and don't believe in government, I would gladly want you as mayor, governor, and el presidente until such time as my voluntary-based society comes to pass. Well done, Mr. Welsh.
ReplyDeleteIt took a strong black female to stand up to Kyle Walker and the wizzes behind the Marion County GOP curtain.
ReplyDeleteJocelyn asks the hard questions of both the Marion County GOP and of Joe Hogsett and the Marion County Democrat machine. Other than Advance Indiana and Mr. Ogden, I see no one addressing the cronyism, the disenfranchisement of the voters by the very people they often have little choice but to cast ballots, and the corrupt "government-business enterprise deals". Jocelyn is the homegrown real deal candidate and I believe the only true Circle City life long resident.
The Democrats and the Republicans fear her something immense.
A quick search shows the condo has been for sale for almost a year. Just Fyi...
ReplyDeleteThat's noted in the post, anon. 2:04.
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to go to Cook County, DuPage County and the area around Saugus, Massachusetts to look through court records on Brewer.
ReplyDelete1:20, Chuck White was a resident of Fishers, Indiana and cast a single ballot in Fishers, Indiana.
ReplyDeleteHe's now a convicted felon, because he's too much of a p--y to appeal his Nazi ruling to Chicago.
I shouldn't say that, anymore. We're much worse than the Nazis, in many respects.
what?? Iy wasn't Larry?
ReplyDeleteThis accomplished woman is the most experienced Republican running for mayor.
ReplyDeleteShe will beat the pants off Hogsett if the people are wise enough to vote for her in the Primary.
A victorious Jocelyn as the Republican candidate for Mayor at the Primary polls is exactly what David Brooks and Kyle Walker and Bob Grand and the Democrats and their Machine fear.
She has my vote.
With regard to Anon. 4:15 PM, I filed a petition for rehearing to the COA a couple weeks ago to ask them to address all the major areas of law they didn't apply to the facts that are applied in every case. If that doesn't work we'll have to go to the Indiana Supreme Court if they grant transfer. If that doesn't work, I havd to throw the long ball & try to get to the U.S. Supreme Court. I don't think I can appeal to the 7th Cir. From the indiana court of appeals... unless I file a petition for habeus corpus with the federal district court after all that and then appeal to the 7th Cir. . It is exhausting for me and my whole family to be in litigation mode day in day out over conduct that seems well within the line drawn by every published decision in this state. If I could go to the 7th Cir in my case I would have loved to. First and foremost, I want my name cleared, my law license back & write a book about the folks who are like Nazis.
ReplyDeleteHow is this any different from Patrice Abduallah's residency issue?
ReplyDeleteadvanceindiana.blogspot.com/2007/08/does-patrice-abduallah-live-in-my.html
White's problem is one of a witch hunt for someone who's not seen as a "team player" & also knows the law well enough to expect that the residency statute should be applied to his case which it wasn't or IN's mandatory standards of residency (the law) which he meets but corrupted witch hunters appear to have ignored altogether.
Is Indy Sentinel White? Take appeals, if you can, but also directly sue the State of Indiana and its executive officers in U.S. Court. I'd love to see the Southern District of Indiana squirm over your case, knowing Chicago takes a very broad view of voting rights.
ReplyDeleteClaim a violation of a fundamental right: voting, and ask for an order barring Indiana from imposing any criminal sentence, seeking restoration of everything that was taken from you, including your office, your job, your criminal reputation, everything.
Chicago really needs to smack around Indiana and get Indiana out of the hills and into modern times.
People are allowed to vote from the most unconventional lifestyles in modern states, and voter registration, itself, is already a burden on voting and a suppression of the right.
The act of registration is more than enough for the State to know who's voting. An accurate address is too far and not material to the State's needs.
America has a principle of "One Person, One Vote." That's all you did. This backwards-ass hilljack state needs to be smacked into the present by a court with some connection to reality.
In Chicago, they well know that not everyone has a nice, clean, residential situation with a 2,000 sq. ft. house in the suburbs they've owned for 10 years.
In reviewing your residential situation, you could be classified as homeless, though people who have somewhat stable lives and live in decent areas will do everything possible from classifying themselves thusly and risk public embarrassment.
You were at least due the voting recognition given to the homeless.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-l-freeman/voting-and-homeless_b_5533134.html
If you don't take this to Chicago, you'll have done all of us a disservice.
So, let us evaluate what APPEAR TO BE, based on all available information, the facts here.
ReplyDeleteApproximately FOUR (4) years ago some guy moves from Chicago where his wife/ex-wife and child are to downtown Indianapolis (Athletic Club condo), starts/franchises a couple of food service businesses on the circle.
Sometime in the last year or two he takes up a casual interest in Republican politics either directly or, likely, at the suggestion of a new friend or regular customer of his business.
He does not establish himself in any way as a contributor to the local political dialog and efforts - other than perhaps campaign contributions to endear himself to some. Nobody knows what this guy thinks about anything - governance, criminal justice, taxes, graft, self-dealing, the Indy economy, schools, etc.
He probably has a bug put in his ear about running for City Council District 23, which he DOES NOT live in and gets advice from party leadership on how to 'cheat'.
He rents an apartment in the district that he suddenly decides he would like to represent, despite NEVER having lived there. Has the new apartment furnished or semi-furnished to give the appearance of someone living there.
Changes his voter registration to create a legal pretense of residence at the fake apartment. [What does the BMV show his his driver's license and license plate registration address to be??]
Lists his downtown Condo for sale, potentially to enhance the appearance of a residence change.
Continues to live downtown while forming a campaign to run for a district he does not live in.
Somehow decides to or gets talked into running for Mayor OF A CITY HE HAS BARELY LIVED IN?! And thinks he is going to run against a long-established, well known and well funded Joe Hogsett who is a former Secretary of State, former Chairman of the Indiana Democrat Party and former Attorney General with high Name ID?
Refinances his downtown residence just days or weeks before announcing a run for Mayor - (Possibly to free up campaign cash ?)
Files his election paperwork with the South Side address on it, not the downtown address he is still believed to live at?
I know nothing about this newcomer to our city. But THIS is the best the Republicans could do? Some, apparently dishonest (or at least disrespecting of District 23's voters) guy who has lived here for FOUR YEARS?! A political novice who will just be chum in the water for the local power broker sharks, corporate welfare queens, law firms and lobbyists?
Seriously?
While many of the comments herein are very good and other than Gary's many excellent analyses of this unknown named Chuck Brewer, I find it is Anon 1:50 AM who offers a far fuller succinct summation of another GOP ex-soldier who more and more seems like a fraud than ANY local air wave/broadcast medium in this town has cared to offer the public.
ReplyDelete1:50:
ReplyDeleteBrewer became regularly involved in Republican politics at least as early as late 2013.
http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=4c473b6e0d4a69432ff0b1f23&id=fa06bb493d
Anonymous 8:56. So, basically a year ago. At least it's a whole ONE.
ReplyDeleteI hear Brewer's campaign is circulating pictures of an empty condo to prove he doesn't live there. It never had much furniture in it. He still has a furnished home in Chicago where he spends time with his son. He's spreading himself pretty thin juggling so many different residences at one time.
ReplyDeleteTerms of owner occupied loans are more favorable than non owner loans. Owner occupied loans require less downpayment and are offered at lower rates than non owner properties. Residency or occupancy does matter to the mortgage company and insurer.
ReplyDelete