LOCAL : Judge Refuses to Drop Indictment Accusing Assemblyman of Forgery
- Share via
SACRAMENTO — A Superior Court judge today refused to dismiss an indictment against Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange), who is accused of forging former President Ronald Reagan’s name on endorsement letters mailed to thousands of voters in 1986.
Defense attorneys relying on a nearly 100-year-old state Supreme Court decision maintained that Lewis could not be charged with forgery because he did not defraud anyone of money or property. They said the phony endorsements were at most an unfair ploy to influence the voters. But Sacramento County Judge James Morris ruled that the voters could have been defrauded of an “intangible right” to a fair election and ordered Lewis to appear for an arraignment May 2.
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox twice per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
