Political Consultant Confesses to Faking Petition Signatures.

A political consultant from Philadelphia, Rasheen Crews, has pleaded guilty to criminal charges for forging signatures to get candidates onto the 2019 primary ballots in the city. According to the Attorney General’s office, Crews will be sentenced on June 29.

May 2019 Primary

Crews served as a political consultant during the May 2019 primary, working with several Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and Philadelphia Municipal Court candidates. He was hired to collect signatures needed to complete the paperwork required to be included on the Democratic ballot that year, and he was paid per signature collected.

Illegal Signature Collection

Instead of collecting signatures legally, Crews either forged them himself or hired others to forge them. The complaint states that he rented out hotel rooms where workers copied down names and addresses onto petition paperwork.

Jason Javie, Crews’ attorney, stated that his client accepts responsibility for the events that occurred back in 2019. The appropriate sanction will be decided by Judge Rayford Means in June.

Investigation and Charges

The Office of the Attorney General began investigating Crews in 2019. While several candidates remained on the ballot that year, others dropped out of the race following the allegations against Crews. He was charged in November with criminal solicitation to commit forgery and theft by failure to make a required disposition.