Sen. Boseman investigated for forgery

The Wilmington Journal broke the news that the NC Board of Elections is investigating allegations made by the one time treasurer of the Boseman campaign that her signatures on several campaign finance reports are not hers. As a result of the breaking news the Journal's website has been shut down by hackers.

Senator Boseman has said to WRAL that she (Boseman) had the treasurer's permission to do so because the treasurer was too busy to sign the forms. Forms that hold the treasurer accountable under the penalty of perjury.

QUESTION: Why forge the treasurer's name when the law allows the candidate to sign her own name to the report?

A candidate may appoint himself or any other individual, including any relative except his spouse, as his treasurer, and, upon failure to file report designating a treasurer, the candidate shall be concluded to have appointed himself as treasurer and shall be required to personally fulfill the duties and responsibilities imposed upon the appointed treasurer and subject to the penalties and sanctions hereinafter provided. NCGS 163-278.7

Next thing to look into:

There is no signature at all on this report.

Don E. Adkins served as Boseman's campaign finance treasurer on the report filed 7/09/06. Where is his certification of treasurer? Is this where it is supposed to be?

CAMPAIGN FORGERY COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST SEN. BOSEMAN,
by CASH MICHAELS
The Wilmington Journal
Originally posted 7/28/2008

The Wilmington Journal has first and exclusively confirmed that Melissa Jarrell, the natural mother of state Sen. Julia Boseman’s adopted son and former companion, has filed an official complaint with the NC State Board of Elections (NCBOE) alleging that her name was “misused and forged” on at least eight campaign finance disclosure reports for Boseman’s campaign while Jarrell served as her treasurer.

If the allegations are proved true, the result “maybe” a criminal felony prosecution, a state BOE official confirms.

And the explosive allegations didn‘t stop there. Jarrell, the former UNC-Wilmington Women’s Softball coach who broke up with Sen. Boseman in 2006 and recently accused her of violating their joint custody agreement, added that Boseman made changes to property documents that they jointly owned “without my knowledge.”

According to a copy of the complaint to Kim Westbrook-Strach, deputy director of Campaign Reporting for the NCBOE - obtained Monday by The Journal and dated July 28, 2008 - Ms. Jarrell says she is even willing to “make a sworn statement as to the facts and testify if need be.”

“Without my knowledge Senator Boseman made changes in property documents that we jointly owned,” Jarrell wrote in her complaint to Westbrook-Strach. “This concerns me that anything found improper in the North Carolina Board of Elections finance reports may reflect negatively on me. So, I would like to bring this to the attention of the BOE and clear this matter up as soon as possible.”


Jarrell continued, “I have found that there have been Campaign Finance Reports filed on behalf of the Committee to Elect Julia Boseman, where my name had been misused and forged. From the NCBOE website, and out of the reports filed that could be viewed online, I have noticed that at least eight reports have my name and signature on them that have been forged.”

Candidates for statewide public office in North Carolina are required, under state law, to file quarterly campaign finance disclosure reports with the NC Elections Board to account for any fundraising and expenditures during designated periods.

Under North Carolina General Statute 163-278.8, “The treasurer of each candidate, political committee, and referendum committee shall keep detailed accounts, current within not more than seven days after the date of receiving a contribution or making an expenditure, of all contributions received and all expenditures made by or on behalf of the candidate, political committee, or referendum committee. The accounts shall include the information required by the State Board of Elections on its forms.”

Failure to comply can result in “criminal prosecution or the imposition of civil penalties.” All campaign treasurers certify their reports by signature. If the reports are found to be purposely incorrect, that treasurer could be charged with perjury.

Jarrell, who is listed as signing campaign disclosure reports as the “appointed treasurer” for Boseman from January 2004 until May 2006 during the period that the couple still lived together, then went on to list the dates that those Boseman campaign finance reports were filed as of Oct. 15, 2004; Jan. 11, 2005; July 20, 2005; Nov. 15, 2005. Jan. 27, 2006; April 24, 2006; April 20, 2006 and May 1, 2006, in that order.

Per the July 20, 2005 and April 20, 2006 reports, Jarrell indicates that she “can’t tell what the day is,” meaning that she can’t make out what date is actually written in as when the reports were completed, versus when the reports actually arrived and were stamped “received” by the NCBOE.

The Journal went online to check those reports, and indeed, as Jarrell indicated, while they were clearly marked received by the BOE campaign finance division on August 3, 2005, the date of completion is written over, looking as if both “July 20” and another July two-decimal date had been written over each other,

The “April 20, 2006” report Jarrell refers to actually appears dated “April 29, 2006.” That report was received by NCBOE on May 2, 2006

On both documents, however, the “M. Jarrell” signature does not resemble Jarrell’s actual signature on either the reports not in dispute, or the letter of July 28, 2008 complaint she sent to the NCBOE.

Towards the end of the letter, Jarrell adds, “I will be willing to make a sworn statement as to the facts and testify if need be.”

Kim Westbrook-Strach, deputy director of Campaign Reporting for the NCBOE, confirmed receipt of Ms. Jarrell’s complaint Monday, and forwarded a copy to The Journal. Under state law, that document, and subsequent notices to both Ms. Jarrell and Sen. Boseman, are considered public record.

Strach indicated that Sen. Boseman would be notified, in writing, as to the NCBOE being in receipt of Jarrell’s complaint.

When asked if an allegation of signature forgery on a campaign committee finance report is considered a criminal act, Strach replied, “Maybe.”

“What we’re concerned about is…the treasurer, by statute, has the responsibility of complying with [and] ensuring that the disclosure reports are true and accurate,” Strach told The Journal exclusively Monday. “They sign that under a penalty of perjury, so we are certainly interested in making sure that that, in fact, has occurred.”

“If the treasurer is saying that [she] didn’t sign that report, we want to make sure that first of all, we want to find out who did, and we want to find out if the contents of that report are true and accurate,” Strach continued, adding, “There may be some other criminal violations that are not of a criminal finance nature.”

According to NCGS 163-278.32, that treasurer’s signature on a campaign finance disclosure report “…shall be certified as true and correct to the best of the knowledge of the …treasurer.

The state statute continues, “A certification under this Article shall be treated as under oath, and any person making a certification under this Article knowing the information to be untrue is guilty of a Class I felony.”

Strach confirmed that she will be interviewing both Jarrell and Boseman to factually determine who did sign the reports in question. If the two-term District 9 Democrat disputes Jarrell charge, then evidence cold be gathered, including samples of Melissa Jarrell’s actual signature, to determine the truth, Strach said.

“Hopefully it will not take very long, the NCBOE official said. “We expect that people will be honest in their answers, and I have no reason to believe here that that will not be the case.”

“Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this in a pretty short time,” Strach assured.

The Journal called Tom Keating, Sen. Boseman’s campaign manager for comment, but the number he gave this newspaper is no longer in service.