BREAKING: Kauffman plea withdrawn by state; Garber sentenced; Johnson trial anticipated

Nov. 13—GOSHEN — Three of the individuals accused in the election fraud case during the November 2022 General Election appeared in Superior Court 3 on Thursday with unexpected results.

While current school board member Mario Garber was sentenced in accordance with his plea agreement, his charge was amended down to a misdemeanor by Superior Court 3 Judge Teresa Cataldo.

Garber was sentenced to a year suspended and on probation.

Meanwhile, Andrea Johnson's trial date was rescheduled from Dec. 2 to May 12 with a pretrial conference scheduled for April 30. Johnson's attorney Phillip Miller said the case could go into a second day of trial due to the number of witnesses, which is not a ton, but noted it's an unusual situation for a level 6 felony. Johnson was the only individual involved who had not previously held a public office.

But the most highly-anticipated individual in the case, former Goshen mayor and school board member Allan Kauffman was originally scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday and wasn't. With a packed courtroom, his attorney Peter Britton, after reading Kauffman's statement and discussing letters in support and "Kauffman's utter lack of prior criminal history, asked Cataldo to reduce the sentence to misdemeanor treatment, like she had done for the other candidates.