Guilty plea in illegal voting case?
May 9, 2013
news.cincinnati.com
A former Hamilton County poll worker accused of illegal voting indicated Thursday she is negotiating with prosecutors to possibly plead guilty.
“We’re doing that in good faith. Whether or not we resolve it is another thing,” Bill Gallagher, defense attorney for Melowese Richardson, said Thursday.
Richardson, 58, of Madisonville, is charged with eight counts of illegal voting. She is accused of voting illegally in the elections of 2008, 2011 and 2012.
Gallagher and Assistant Prosecutor Bill Anderson told Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman they have talked about resolving the case with a guilty plea but Richardson wanted to talk to her pastor before she agreed.
A poll worker in Hamilton County elections since 1998, Richardson is accused of improperly voting her absentee ballots and those of friends and relatives. Six of the eight charges are alleged to have happened in the 2012 election.
The charges against Richardson carry a maximum prison sentence of 12 years. She is next in court May 28.
She is one of six charged in Hamilton County with illegal voting.
One, a 55-year-old nun, pleaded guilty in April. Sister Marguerite Kloos, of Delhi Township, admitted she voted via absentee ballot for another nun last fall, who died before she could vote. Kloos was placed in a diversion program that, if she gets in no more trouble and does as the court orders, could have her record erased and be eligible again to vote.
Also charged with illegal voting are Russell Glassop, 76, of Symmes Township; Margaret I. Allen, 64, formerly of Loveland; Ernestine Strickland, 84, of Memphis and Andre Wilson, 49, of Winton Hills. |
