(SitNews) Anchorage, Alaska - Alaska Attorney General Kevin G. Clarkson recently announced criminal charges filed against Representative Gabrielle LeDoux, Lisa (Vaught) Simpson, and Caden Vaught for voter misconduct. These charges stem from the investigation that was started in 2018 after the Alaska Division of Elections identified some irregularities in some of the absentee ballot applications and absentee ballots returned for the primary election for House District 15.

Gabrielle LeDoux is a member of the Republican Party of the Alaska House of Representatives. She was the former mayor of Kodiak and currently lives in Anchorage. LeDoux is a former maritime attorney, having practiced law in Kodiak and Anchorage. LeDoux's former chief of staff, Lisa Simpson, and her adult son, Caden Vaught, are also charged with several counts of voter misconduct.

The charges involve alleged conduct that took place in both the 2018 primary and general elections. According to charging documents, Representative LeDoux, Simpson, and Vaught allegedly as principles and accomplices knowingly provided false information on voter registration forms to show a residence address in House District 15, when there is evidence that Simpson andVaught were not living, and had no intent to live, at the addresses provided at the time of the election. The charging documents also allege that Representative LeDoux solicited a similar action by other individuals in 2014 in order to ensure they could vote in the House District 15 election.

“I commend the Division of Elections on its speedy identification of issues in 2018 and the work of all the law enforcement agencies - federal and state - that reviewed countless documents to bring us the evidence needed to file these charges,” said Attorney General Clarkson.

Clarkson said, “I know these charges won’t answer all the questions that have been floating around since the House District issues first arose. Right now we are focused on the criminal charges we feel we can ethically file based on the evidence. Once the criminal process has played out, we can share more information about the investigation and what it revealed. For now, I want to focus on the good work by all involved in the investigation and assure the public that this illustrates how the process is supposed to work. The integrity of elections is of the utmost importance, and these charges show how seriously we take any actions that seek to compromise elections.”

It should be remembered, charges are only allegations and are not evidence of guilt. Defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which time the prosecution must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

If convicted, the defendants could face a maximum of 5 years in prison. Because this is a summons and not an arrest, a grand jury must be convened within 20 days of the first appearance in court. No information on the scheduling of the first court appearance is currently available.

On the Web:

Information and Probable Cause statement 03/13/20 PDF(1.3MB).

 

Edited By Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News:

Alaska Department of Law
www.law.alaska.us

Representations of fact and opinions in comments posted are solely those of the individual posters and do not represent the opinions of Sitnews.

SitNews ©2020
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews are considered protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper freelance writers and subscription services. E-mail your news & photos to editor@sitnews.us Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.