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March 22, 2010
Impeachment Articles Filed in Georgia House Against Secretary of State’s Inspector General
ATLANTA, GA – Articles of Impeachment were filed last week in the Georgia House of Representatives against Shawn LaGrua, the Inspector General for the office of the Secretary of State. The articles charge that her office conducted several investigations improperly during the time period from 2004 to 2010.
The impeachment charges note failures by Mrs. LaGrua or her office to investigate cases thoroughly where clear potential violations or discrepancies existed. They also identify cases where individuals were dubiously charged for violations without substantive evidence that they committed those violations. The articles cite political motivations as possible reasons for several different investigations that produced questionable results.
The impeachment charges first reference a criminal investigation that Shawn LaGrua conducted in 2004 while she was both an Assistant District Attorney and the Solicitor General in Dekalb County. Many of the other impeachable offenses involve investigations conducted while Shawn LaGrua was the Inspector General for former Secretary of State, Karen Handel. These investigations were conducted for cases involving voting machines and elections matters on behalf of the State Election Board (SEB). A few more of the charges involve SEB investigations as recently as 2010.
Prior to working for Dekalb County, Shawn LaGrua was an Assistant District Attorney for Fulton County. After becoming an Assistant District Attorney in Dekalb County, she was appointed as the Solicitor General for the county by Governor Sonny Purdue. When Karen Handel, the former Fulton County chairwoman, was elected Secretary of State in 2006, she established the office of Inspector General and selected Shawn LaGrua to lead that office in 2007.
In December of 2009, three complaints were filed with the State Inspector General by three different citizens regarding investigations that Mrs. Lagrua’s office conducted or failed to conduct during 2008 and 2009. Also in 2010, a fourth complaint by another Georgia citizen was filed with the U.S. Justice Dept. Days after his office was notified of the first three complaints, Governor Purdue appointed Shawn LaGrua to the Atlanta Judicial Circuit. She is expected to become a Fulton County Superior Court judge in July of this year.
The impeachment articles were drafted as HR1714 and are available on the General Assembly website at http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/fulltext/hr1714.htm. They have been sent to the House Judiciary Committee which will likely determine what action to take. Under the Georgia Constitution, the House has the power to impeach an official while the Senate is granted authority to conduct a trial.
Documents concerning complaints about the investigations in question can be found on the VoterGA web site at: http://www.voterga.org/more/index.cfm?Fuseaction=more_15727. An in depth documentary about the questionable investigations that were conducted can be found on the Political Vine web site at: http://politicalvine.com/politicalrumors/law-and-justice/the-real-shawn-lagrua/.
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February 4, 2010
Former Commissioner Asks Justice Dept. to Investigate Constitutional Rights Violations by Handel, LaGrua
SAVANNAH, GA – Former Republican Chatham County Commissioner, Jeff Rayno, announced today that he is filing a letter of complaint with the U.S. Justice Dept. The complaint cites potential Constitutional violations committed by former Secretary of State (SOS) Karen Handel and her Inspector General (IG) Shawn Lagrua during the December 16, 2009 State Election Board (SEB) meeting. His complaint, which also cites SEB member Kent Webb, is the fourth one filed by four different citizens against Shawn LaGrua’s IG office in the last two months.
Rayno asserts in the complaint that his Sixth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution were violated when he was referred to the Attorney General’s office for a felony investigation without probable cause or evidence that he had done anything wrong. He described that he was refused details of the accusations against him and therefore, denied due process and the standard presumption of innocence afforded to all Americans. The transcript of the meeting appears to corroborate his claims.
During the meeting, LaGrua stated that Rayno submitted forged petitions he collected on a drive to help get Chatham County Commission candidate, David Osbourne, on the ballot for the general election. Rayno determined that only one of 200 signatures was in question and asked to see it. LaGrua could not produce it, but she still recommended to the board that Rayno be referred to the office of the Attorney General for further investigation and prosecution. Board member, David Worley, sought to remove Rayno from being referred due to lack of evidence but Chairwoman Handel disagreed and instructed Mr. Webb to make a motion. Mr. Webb then motioned to refer Rayno to the Attorney General’s office and then Handel seconded the motion to pass it despite opposition from Mr. Worley.
In the letter Rayno contends that his case is not isolated but highlights another example of a systemic problem in the IG office. He cited the case of Laura Gallegos, one of three other complainants, as an example. Gallegos was charged with five matters asserted against her for an election certification error committed by the Lowndes County Board of Elections. Potential violations committed by her supervisor were ignored in the investigation. Although Mrs. Gallegos’ case was eventually dismissed, she spent thousands of dollars on attorney fees, suffered a foreclosure and was terminated from her job.
Rayno stated that he believes these dubious investigations are politically motivated. He explained that he was collecting signatures for a candidate who opposed Helen Stone, an associate of Karen Handel, who escorted Mrs. Handel when she visited Savannah prior to her campaign. Laura Gallegos has also stated that her supervisor, Deb Cox, was on a first name basis with Karen Handel and had gone to lunch with her when she visited the office.
All complaints and their supporting documentation are available on the Complaints tab of the www.voterga.org web site. VoterGA plans to submit a corroborating letter to the Justice Department describing why they also believe that there is a systemic problem in the SOS IG office.
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January 18, 2010
Election Case Dismissed After Questionable Prosecution
ATLANTA, GA – All matters asserted against former Lowndes County elections technician, Laura Gallegos, were dismissed last Thursday during an administrative hearing. The State Election Board (SEB) had accused her of improper testing which led to the inclusion of 947 test votes in the 2008 Lowndes County election results. The case was investigated by the office of Shawn LaGrua, the Inspector General who reported to SEB chairwoman and former Secretary of State, Karen Handel.
The dubious facts of Mrs. Gallegos’ case have attracted statewide attention that helped her garner assistance from civic organizations including the Georgia Voting Rights Coalition, the ACLU Voting Rights Project, Defenders of Democracy, Operation Restoration, Madison Forum, and VoterGA. VoterGA assisted her attorney, Converse Bright, in preparing the defense and offered expert witness testimony on her behalf.
Testifying for the SEB, Mr. James Long, a voting machine engineer hired from the federal Elections Assistance Commission to support Georgia’s state elections, provided technical background for the case that was prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General, Ann Brumbaugh. However, during cross examination, he concurred with points made by Mr. Bright in his opening argument, including that:
- The voting machines will accept test votes while accumulating actual election night results;
- None of the testing that Mrs. Gallegos allegedly skipped had anything to do with the inclusion of the 947 test votes into the live results on election night;
- The 947 test votes were included when an unidentified election official loaded a memory card during vote accumulation and ignored a warning indicating the card had test votes;
- There was no evidence that Mrs. Gallegos, who was not even present during the accumulation, committed any violation on election night;
- The machine malfunction that Mrs. Gallegos discovered during testing caused it not to clear the test votes from that card;
- The county elections supervisor, not Mrs. Gallegos, was responsible for matching the poll book totals to the recap of votes cast to detect potential discrepancies on election night;
Judge John Gatto dismissed the case after confirming another opening argument made by Mr. Bright. He determined from testimony by supervisor, Deb Cox that she had not properly sworn in Mrs. Gallegos as a voting machine custodian.
Evidence supporting all of these findings was previously delivered to the SEB in requests by Mrs. Gallegos and VoterGA. They sought to reopen her case due to lack of a proper hearing, as required by law. Their requests were denied in a December 2009 SEB meeting by Karen Handel.
Mrs. Gallegos’ saga is not over yet. She has filed a pending complaint to the State Inspector General’s office claiming that her investigation and prosecution were conducted to cover up a voting machine defect and as many as a half dozen or more potential violations committed by her supervisor. The verdict and admissions in her trial appear to corroborate her complaint.
Although found innocent of any wrongdoing in court, Mrs. Gallegos spent thousands of dollars in attorney fees, her family has suffered a foreclosure, and she was terminated from her job.
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The remarkable Lowndes County, Laura Gallegos case:
Jeff.Rayno's claim that his Constituional rights were violated by Handel, LaGrua in the Dec 16 SEB meeting
The controversial 2005 Cobb SPOST tax referendum and the investigation that was never really conducted.
The "lost" VoterGA complaint:
Shawn LaGrua's unauthorized investigation against Guy Antinozzi .
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December 21, 2009
Three Complaints Filed Against SOS Inspector Office
ATLANTA, GA – Three citizens have filed three separate complaints in recent weeks against the office of the Inspector General for Secretary of State (SOS), Karen Handel. The office, led by Shawn Lagrua, investigates cases for the State Election Board (SEB). The complaints that were filed with the State Inspector General contend that the office improperly handled investigations involving electronic voting machine defects and controversies. One citizen insists that his investigation complaint was lost. Another asserts that an investigation was opened based on his grievances but then it was shut down without answering any key questions or contacting him for input. A third individual contends that she was not informed of allegations against her until her SEB hearing had begun and she was then charged with violations that her supervisor committed.
In January 2009, VoterGA founder, Garland Favorito, filed a complaint alleging the illegal acquisition and certification of $54 million in voting equipment that is currently being used in Georgia. He contends that the IG office confirmed they received the complaint in February of 2009 but never provided a status or acknowledgement of it. Finally, after he wrote a formal letter to the SEB members in October requesting a response, Inspector General Lagrua replied in December that the office could not locate his complaint. He contends that reply is not credible.
Also in January, David Chastain spoke at an SEB meeting regarding the controversial 2005 Cobb County SPLOST tax referendum. In October, he was surprised to find out from the SEB meeting minutes that the IG office opened an investigation without contacting him and then shut it down after claiming everything was in order. He replied to the board with a list of his questions that were never answered. In that particular election, 285 blank voted ballots were cast by voters although the referendum was the only item on the ballot. The referendum was decided by only 114 votes out of 39,780 votes cast. Over 800 million dollars in new taxes were then assessed, the majority of which is being paid by Cobb County residents. The contest was plagued by unexplained modem transmission difficulties, reporting delays and a shift in preliminary results that took the SPLOST from apparent defeat to a razor thin victory.
But perhaps the most astounding complaint is that of long time voting machine technician, Laura Gallegos. Her Lowndes County Board of Elections certified 947 test votes in the 2008 general election results after her supervisor failed to match poll book voter totals to voting machine voter totals, a legally required task that would have revealed the error. Instead of accepting a slap on the wrist for the mistake, the well connected supervisor secretly wrote to the IG implicating Mrs. Gallegos, who had no role in results tabulation. The IG office then filed a charge against Mrs. Gallegos alleging a testing violation that is also the legal responsibility of the supervisor.
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