Goshen School Board election fraud cases returning to court

Nov. 13—GOSHEN — Three individuals accused in an election fraud case were in Elkhart County Superior Court 3 on Thursday, and there was an unexpected twist.

Mario Garber was sentenced, Andrea Johnson is likely to take the case to trial despite every other individual involved pleading guilty, and Allan Kauffman saw his plea agreement withdrawn during his anticipated sentencing hearing.

Elkhart County prosecutors withdrew the plea agreement in the case of Allan John Kauffman, former Goshen mayor and school board member involved in an election fraud case from the 2022 General Election after Kauffman's attorney Peter Britton asked Judge Teresa Cataldo to sentence the Level 6 felony as a misdemeanor.

Kauffman is one of five individuals charged with election fraud after a mailer was released in 2020 denouncing school board candidates Rob Roeder, Ryan Glick and Linda Hartman, and their connection to Purple For Parents.

The other four individuals involved in the case were candidates Jose Elizalde, Mario Garber, Roger Nafziger and Andrea Johnson. Johnson was the only person involved who had not previously held office nor was on the board at the time.

Contributions were reportedly gathered and distributed by Kauffman, who was Elizalde's campaign chairman and not a candidate in that election, to candidates to help pay for a mailer against the three other candidates on Oct. 29, 2022, to Elkhart Township residents at a cost of $11,770.

During an Elkhart County Election Board hearing on April 27, 2023, Kauffman, said he was approached by a retired school teacher because of concerns she had about the Purple for Parents-affiliated school board candidates.

The teacher was concerned about the future of local education should Purple for Parents-endorsed candidates Roeder, Glick and Hartman gain elected office. At the time, Kauffman said the teacher wished to remain anonymous to prevent backlash of her husband's business. The teacher gathered the funds and Kauffman distributed them between the four election candidates, whose campaign finance committees paid Maple Leaf Printing for the cost of the mailer. They listed Kauffman as the donor on campaign finance forms, which the election board later discovered was technically untrue. Per election law, any person who donates more than $100 toward a campaign should be listed on finance forms.

The Elkhart County Election Board found that the retired school teacher, Sue Neeb, had collected funds from a total of 32 individuals and, while she did keep some records, election law dictates that donors offer name, address, occupation, date, and dollar amount for all donations — and Neeb did not collect all of the necessary information.

Each of the five individuals were charged with filing a fraudulent report, a Level 6 felony. All but Kauffman were charged with a single count of accepting a contribution made in another's name, a Class B misdemeanor, after allegedly filing fraudulent campaign finance reports. Kauffman, has the same charges but has five counts of the Class B misdemeanor instead of just one.

Garber, Nafziger and Elizalde are current sitting board members. Kauffman resigned from the board Feb. 26, citing health concerns. Keith Goodman was voted in as his replacement in late March.

Roger Nafziger and Jose Elizalde were sentenced in August by plea agreement, to filing a fraudulent report, a Level 6 felony, and the convictions were each entered as a Class A misdemeanor.

The deal offered to Nafziger and Elizalde was to plead guilty to the felony and be sentenced to 365 days at the Elkhart County Jail, suspended on reporting probation, with probation to be terminated after one weekend of a community-oriented work program. Prosecution has said they offered the same misdemeanor status to almost everyone involved in the case, or at the very least agreed to stay silent if it was requested.

But the offer apparently does not stand for Kauffman, who is regarded as the ringleader of the case, having collected and distributed the funds.

During what was anticipated to be Kauffman's sentencing hearing on Wednesday, his attorney Britton spoke to the judge about Kauffman's character and a courtroom full of individuals allegedly supporting Kauffman. Also submitted were a slew of letters in support of Kauffman's character.

Britton read a letter written by Kauffman, wherein Kauffman said he's always been diligent in election law and report filing in regards to election law and when explaining what happened he helped to build the case against himself.

"First I would like the court to know that I accept responsibility for breaking election law," the letter began. "I made a mistake. I had no intention at any time of breaking election law."