On Thursday, federal authorities arrested a Victorville man, James Brass, charging him and two others with paying individuals on Skid Row to sign petitions using stolen identities of registered voters.
The federal indictment states that Brass, 47, managed a team of signature collectors and gathered signatures himself for ballot petitions aimed at shaping California law. Known by the nickname “Lord,” Brass controlled a company named Pinnacle Brass LLC.
Brass is scheduled for an initial appearance in federal court in Riverside on Thursday afternoon. A deputy federal public defender representing him did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Two petition circulators, Courtney Price, 49, from Jacksonville, Florida, and Jateisha Herron, 33, from Boron, California, allegedly worked for Brass and were also charged. They have not been arrested and could not be contacted for comments.
All three face charges of conspiracy to commit identity fraud in furtherance of a state felony. Brass and Price are additionally charged with identity fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. If convicted, they could face up to five years in prison for each count.
“The charged conduct undermines the confidence voters have in our election systems, and we will vigorously investigate and charge anyone involved,” stated First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in a news release.
The indictment highlights how the state Constitution allows citizens to bypass the state legislature and enact statutes and amendments directly through the initiative process. Qualifying an initiative for the ballot requires a large number of signatures from registered voters supporting the measure.
Proponents typically hire petition management companies to secure signatures, as detailed in the indictment. From February to August, Brass, Price, and Herron allegedly used a database to identify registered California voters. Brass and Price then allegedly distributed the stolen identities to petition signers on Skid Row, who copied personal information onto the petitions and fraudulently signed them in those voters’ names.
Brass and Herron allegedly falsified declarations on the petitions, claiming they had witnessed the signatures and asserting their authenticity. The fraudulent petitions were submitted to coordinators for payments from a petition management company. Brass allegedly received about $41,600 from coordinators affiliated with one such company.