
The search came months after a former Baldwin Park police officer signed a sworn statement that he’d received complaints from three cannabis dispensary operators alleging “questionable business practices, which included paying as much as $250,000 cash in a brown paper bag to city officials.” Last November, federal investigators served a search warrant at his home as part of an investigation into marijuana licensing practices in Baldwin Park, sources told The Times. Galvan’s name has been linked to multiple corruption scandals in recent months. The raid comes amid allegations in a lawsuit that cannabis businesses complained of paying thousands of dollars in cash to Baldwin Park officials. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.Īttempts to contact Chaouch, Morris, Reed and Streeter for comment were unsuccessful Friday.Ĭalifornia FBI raids Compton councilman’s home, Baldwin Park city attorney’s office in pot inquiry
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Logan also said his office based its referral for investigation to the district attorney’s office “on irregular voter registration activity and information received from voters and observers during the election,” and before the recount.Ĭhaouch wrote a letter to the district attorney’s office laying out her role in the alleged fraud, according to Spicer, who did not provide a copy of the letter. Through a spokesman, Logan said both Spicer and his mother voted by mail in the primary and runoff elections for Galvan’s seat. Voting records, however, dispute Spicer’s claim, according to the registrar’s office.

It contradicts what I advocate for,” Spicer said. I don’t like what that does for democracy. “I can take a loss, but I can’t take being cheated. He also claimed he saw Chaouch’s ballot during the recount, with Dawson’s home address listed as her own. During that process, he said he did not see his own ballot or his mother’s among those tallied. Spicer called for a recount, which was conducted in July. But they failed to pay her, so she decided to speak out, Spicer said. she registered to vote from his house and she knows about 20 other people who did the same thing,” he alleged.Īccording to Spicer, Chaouch said she’d been hired by Galvan’s campaign during the runoff. “They asked her what do you mean? And she said. Spicer said his concerns were validated on June 7 when Chaouch, a former volunteer for Dawson’s campaign, reached out to his staff and told them she had “committed voter fraud.” Aware that voter turnout is often low in Compton, Spicer said he feared Galvan could influence the outcome of the race if he swung a few dozen ballots by nefarious means. Spicer said he suspected fraud early in the race, accusing Galvan of offering to buy people groceries or giving them gifts in exchange for votes. Ultimately, none of those ballots were tallied in the general election.

In November, two men were charged with attempting to register nearly 8,000 “fictitious, nonexistent or deceased” voters to receive mail-in ballots for the Hawthorne mayoral election.

County prosecutors have uncovered an attempt to manipulate mail-in voting during the 2020 election cycle. “At the same time, our referral and the District Attorney’s subsequent investigation and charges demonstrate that attempts to perpetrate fraud on the voting process are trackable and will be prosecuted.”įriday’s arrests mark at least the second time L.A. “These charges and the activities alleged in this case are serious and strike at a time when public confidence in our electoral process is in decline and misinformation about the security of voting is rampant,” Logan said. In the wake of widespread, largely baseless, claims of fraud involving mail-in voting during the 2020 presidential election, Logan said Friday’s news should serve as proof that voting officials are adept at catching manipulations at the ballot box. In a statement issued Friday, Logan also said he had referred a case of “alleged fraudulent activity” involving Compton’s municipal election to the D.A.’s office on June 9. Both the employee Galvan allegedly tried to bribe and an election observer immediately reported the incident, according to Dean Logan, the county’s top elections official.
