Two people indicted last year in connection with a scheme in which homeless people on Skid Row were offered money and cigarettes in exchange for false and forged signatures on ballot petitions and voter registration forms pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony charges.
Harold Bennett, 55, pleaded guilty to one felony count each of circulating an initiative or petition containing false, forged or fictitious names and registering a fictitious person, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Co-defendant Rose Sweeney, 44, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of circulating an initiative or petition containing false, forged or fictitious names.
Both were sentenced to three years of formal probation, and a 16-month state prison sentence was suspended for Bennett, who could end up behind bars if he violates the terms of his probation, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Bennett and Sweeney were among nine people indicted in June 2019. According to prosecutors, the defendants engaged in the solicitation of hundreds of false and/or forged signatures on state ballot petitions and voter registration forms by offering homeless people $1 and/or cigarettes for their participation during the 2016 and 2018 election cycles.
Co-defendants Richard Howard, 64, Louis Thomas Wise, 38, Christopher Joseph Williams, 41, Nickey Demelvin Huntley, 45, and Norman Hall, 63, pleaded no contest or guilty at earlier court hearings, while Kirkland Washington, 40, is still awaiting trial.
The remaining defendant, Jakari Fati Mardis, is still at large, according to the District Attorney’s Office.