The Plain Dealer Tuesday, November 6, 2007 Election workers plead no contest In deal, no conviction recorded Jim Nichols Plain Dealer Reporter A special prosecutor ended a two-year drive to convict two Cuyahoga County election workers for rigging a ballot recount during the hotly contested 2004 presidential election. Monday morning, the defendants agreed to a deal that will allow them to get probation without admitting any wrongdoing and avoid convictions if they stay out of trouble. Jacqueline Maiden, the board’s third-ranking staff member, and middle manager Kathleen Dreamer each pleaded no contest to negligent misconduct and failure to perform official duties during that November general election. The charges are, respectively, a felony and a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 18 months in prison. Typically, after a no-contest plea, a judge finds a defendant guilty or not guilty. But under the deal’s terms, the judge made no finding. If Maiden and Dreamer break no laws during their six-month probation the case against them will close without convictions. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Peter Corrigan had imposed an 18-month sentence on Maiden and Dreamer last March after a jury convicted them. But Ohio Chief Justice Thomas Moyer ordered that another judge hear the defendants’ argument for a new trial because of Corrigan’s pretrial ruling on one pivotal matter appeared biased. In August, Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold ordered a new trial, which was to begin on Monday. Instead, the case ended. Despite that, special prosecutor Kevin Baxter felt satisfied and vindicated. The no-contest plea, coupled with the earlier jury conviction, affirms the prosecutor’s position, he said. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason asked Baxter in the spring of 2005 to investigate the case and determine if charges should be pursued. Mason, as the election board’s lawyer, had an inherent conflict. “As a prosecutor, you’re looking for a fair resolution, not necessarily just a conviction,” said Baxter, who is the Erie County prosecutor. “The bottom line…is that the recount was manipulated…But at the end of the day, these two ladies took some responsibility for their actions.” Dreamer, 41, of Cleveland, and Maiden, 60, of Richmond Heights, declined to comment afterward. So did Maiden’s lawyer, Cara Santosuosso. But Dreamer’s attorney, Roger Synenberg, emphasized that the defendants absolutely did not take any responsibility. “That might be Kevin’s spin on this, but that’s not the way it was,” Synenberg said. “If that had been a condition of this plea, we would’ve gone to trial. They’re not accepting responsibility because they didn’t do anything wrong.” He said he will press the elections board to pay his “substantial” legal fee. “The board said it would pay if there was no finding of guilt,” he said. “Well, there is no finding of guilt.” At issue was how the board and its staff conducted a sample recount of ballots after third-party candidates demanded a countywide vote recount. That sampling was meant as a test of the validity of tabulating machines. If the hand and machine counts in randomly sampled precincts matched, it would presumptively prove the machines count accurately enough to rely upon for the broader retabulation of all 600,000-plus votes. But the board staff rigged the sample like this, prosecutors claimed: Board workers secretly hand-counted ballots in selected precincts after the election. In precincts where the hand and machine counts matched, ballots were set aside and later put forth publicly as the precincts that popped up in a random selection. The defendants countered that the board had always done things that way – with the knowledge of its attorney, one of Mason’s assistants. “There was no evidence to that effect – none,” Baxter said. Maiden said Baxter offered her freedom in exchange for testifying against her superiors, but she declined the deal. “All I had to do was lie on somebody else, but I would not do that,” Maiden said. A distraught Bob Bennett, chairman of the Board of Elections, accused County Prosecutor Bill Mason of a personal vendetta against recently ousted Elections Michael Vu. “These people are not criminals,” Bennett said. Mason had requested a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that workers rigged the recount to ensure the board wouldn’t have to hand-count the 2004 presidential election. “We asked the prosecutor specifically to give us guidance on the recount tow years ago,” Bennett said. “They told us to do the same as we’ve always done.” Plain Dealer reporter Joan Mazzolini contributed to this story. | Synenberg & Associates, LLC

The Plain Dealer

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Election workers plead no contest

In deal, no conviction recorded

Jim Nichols

Plain Dealer Reporter

A special prosecutor ended a two-year drive to convict two Cuyahoga County election workers for rigging a ballot recount during the hotly contested 2004 presidential election.

Monday morning, the defendants agreed to a deal that will allow them to get probation without admitting any wrongdoing and avoid convictions if they stay out of trouble.

Jacqueline Maiden, the board's third-ranking staff member, and middle manager Kathleen Dreamer each pleaded no contest to negligent misconduct and failure to perform official duties during that November general election. The charges are, respectively, a felony and a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 18 months in prison.

Typically, after a no-contest plea, a judge finds a defendant guilty or not guilty. But under the deal's terms, the judge made no finding. If Maiden and Dreamer break no laws during their six-month probation the case against them will close without convictions.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Peter Corrigan had imposed an 18-month sentence on Maiden and Dreamer last March after a jury convicted them.

But Ohio Chief Justice Thomas Moyer ordered that another judge hear the defendants' argument for a new trial because of Corrigan's pretrial ruling on one pivotal matter appeared biased.

In August, Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold ordered a new trial, which was to begin on Monday. Instead, the case ended.

Despite that, special prosecutor Kevin Baxter felt satisfied and vindicated. The no-contest plea, coupled with the earlier jury conviction, affirms the prosecutor's position, he said.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason asked Baxter in the spring of 2005 to investigate the case and determine if charges should be pursued. Mason, as the election board's lawyer, had an inherent conflict.

"As a prosecutor, you're looking for a fair resolution, not necessarily just a conviction," said Baxter, who is the Erie County prosecutor. "The bottom line...is that the recount was manipulated...But at the end of the day, these two ladies took some responsibility for their actions."

Dreamer, 41, of Cleveland, and Maiden, 60, of Richmond Heights, declined to comment afterward. So did Maiden's lawyer, Cara Santosuosso.

But Dreamer's attorney, Roger Synenberg, emphasized that the defendants absolutely did not take any responsibility.

"That might be Kevin's spin on this, but that's not the way it was," Synenberg said. "If that had been a condition of this plea, we would've gone to trial. They're not accepting responsibility because they didn't do anything wrong."

He said he will press the elections board to pay his "substantial" legal fee. "The board said it would pay if there was no finding of guilt," he said. "Well, there is no finding of guilt."

At issue was how the board and its staff conducted a sample recount of ballots after third-party candidates demanded a countywide vote recount. That sampling was meant as a test of the validity of tabulating machines. If the hand and machine counts in randomly sampled precincts matched, it would presumptively prove the machines count accurately enough to rely upon for the broader retabulation of all 600,000-plus votes.

But the board staff rigged the sample like this, prosecutors claimed: Board workers secretly hand-counted ballots in selected precincts after the election. In precincts where the hand and machine counts matched, ballots were set aside and later put forth publicly as the precincts that popped up in a random selection.

The defendants countered that the board had always done things that way - with the knowledge of its attorney, one of Mason's assistants.

"There was no evidence to that effect - none," Baxter said.

Maiden said Baxter offered her freedom in exchange for testifying against her superiors, but she declined the deal.

"All I had to do was lie on somebody else, but I would not do that," Maiden said.

A distraught Bob Bennett, chairman of the Board of Elections, accused County Prosecutor Bill Mason of a personal vendetta against recently ousted Elections Michael Vu.

"These people are not criminals," Bennett said.

Mason had requested a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that workers rigged the recount to ensure the board wouldn't have to hand-count the 2004 presidential election.

"We asked the prosecutor specifically to give us guidance on the recount tow years ago," Bennett said.

"They told us to do the same as we've always done."

Plain Dealer reporter Joan Mazzolini contributed to this story.

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