Guilty: Democrat County Chair Convicted of Ballot Petition Fraud
Note that Owen "Butch" Morgan resigned his position as the scandal surfaced, but he was the county chair when the ballot petition fraud occurred. Two other party members were also involved, but neither of those cases went to trial as both defendants pled guilty to ballot petition fraud.
Guilty. On all counts.
That was the verdict late Thursday in the forgery trial involving former chair of the county Democratic Party Butch Morgan and party member Dustin Blythe, who were accused of conspiring to forge signatures on petitions to place Democratic candidates on the state primary ballot in 2008.
It came just after 8 p.m., after about three hours of deliberation.
Morgan was convicted on two counts of felony conspiracy to commit petition fraud and two counts of felony conspiracy to commit forgery, and Blythe was convicted on nine counts of felony forgery and one count of felony falsifying a petition.