HARRISBURG – Agents from the Attorney General’s Public Corruption Unit have charged a Delaware County man with falsifying information on nominating petitions that he allegedly circulated for a Congressional election in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Attorney General Linda Kelly identified the defendant as Richard Cairns, 58, of 236 Bowdoin Ave., Swarthmore.
The investigation by the Attorney General’s Office was based on a referral from Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green, involving allegations that forgeries were included in nominating petitions filed on behalf of the candidacy of James D. Schneller for a November 2010 election involving the Seventh Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
According to the criminal complaint, Cairns submitted petitions that purportedly included the names and signatures of numerous individuals who did not sign or authorize their signatures to be included on those documents.
Kelly said a review by a forensic document examiner identified numerous suspected forgeries on several different pages of the nominating petitions. Interviews with 25 of the individuals whose questionable signatures were identified by the forensics examination confirmed that the information included on the petitions was fraudulent.
Cairns is charged with one count each of perjury and false signatures and statements in nominating petitions and papers, both ungraded misdemeanors which are each punishable by up to one year in prison and $500 fines.
Cairns was preliminarily arraigned today before Upper Darby Magisterial District Judge John J. Perfetti and released on his own recognizance. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 8th, at 8:30 a.m.
The case will be prosecuted in Delaware County Court of Common Pleas by Senior Deputy Attorney General John Flannery of the Attorney General’s Public Corruption Unit.
