PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Authorities have arrested a Philadelphia political consultant on forgery charges because they say he orchestrated an organized assembly line of false signatures on several 2019 candidate petitions.
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Pennsylvania Attorney General and governor-elect Josh Shapiro says Rasheen Crews set up shop inside hotel rooms — paying half a dozen people at a time to falsely sign names on election nomination petitions.
Investigators say candidates running for judge in Common Pleas and Municipal court paid the 46-year-old consultant between $800 to $2,500 to gather and collect valid signatures.
Instead, they say he hired the “workers” for about $60 a day to write in names and addresses, and forge signatures on the petitions.
The affidavit says potential candidates who were interviewed by investigators never knew about the forgery, but some withdrew from races because of questions about the legitimacy of the petition.
A handwriting expert says more than a thousand of the signatures were photocopied onto the petitions.
Crews is charged with Criminal solicitation to commit forgery and theft by failure to make required disposition.
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