Charges Filed In Constable Election Fraud Case One Year After Complaint

petition
Samples of signatures Kusama submitted.

A Sierra Vista man has been indicted on 11 counts related to a “serious disparity” with the authenticity of dozens of signatures submitted on his nomination petitions in April 2022 to run for Constable.

Brent Thomas Tadashi Kusama was indicted by a state grand jury in Phoenix on April 17, more than one year after his opponent filed an election challenge citing potential fraud and forgery. The charges include eight counts of filing a false instrument and one count of fraudulent schemes, all felonies.

Kusama is scheduled to be arraigned July 17 in Cochise County Superior Court. He remains out of custody, although formal pretrial release conditions could be imposed at arraignment.

As previously reported by Arizona Daily Independent, Kusama needed 261 valid signature on his nominating petitions to get his name on the ballot for the August 2022 Democratic primary.

He submitted only 263 signatures, of which only 89 were deemed valid in a report issued at the time by Cochise County Recorder David Stevens. Included among the rejected signatures were 166 that Stevens noted were “invalid” following a comparison to voter records.

Stevens also rejected two other signatures based on the fact both voters died in 2021. Those two signatures are charged in the indictment as misdemeanors which allege Kusama “knowingly signed any name other than his own to a nomination petition.”

The civil election challenge against Kusama was closed when he withdrew his candidacy. The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office then referred the matter to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office for a criminal investigation after conferring with the FBI.

Court records show grand jurors were provided 10 of Kusama’s petition signatures as evidence. Assistant Attorney General Todd Lawson will prosecute the case.

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