Forgery suspected in Saugus recall

SAUGUS – Accusations of forgery of recall petition signatures were made Thursday by the political action committee seeking to save the Board of Selectmen.Dennis Gould, head of the Save Our Board of Selectmen group, charged that multiple Saugus residents have reported that their names are on the recall petition seeking removal of chair Ellen Faiella, even though they claim they never signed it.Signatures for the petitions seeking removal of the other three selectmen – Maureen Dever, Paul A. Allan and Stephen L. Castinetti – have not been examined.?Multiple (signatures are) forged, or signed, for different people,” Gould said. “Others (have) unreadable handwriting, have the wrong street addresses, or have a misspelled name.”Handwriting consultant Eileen Page, hired by the pro-selectmen PAC, said she found 832 unreadable or questionable signatures, even though Town Clerk Ellen Schena only found 43 she could not certify last November, when the issue first came up. Five hundred other names were tossed out because they were not registered voters.The Save Saugus PAC was required to present 4,443 valid signatures for each of the four selectmen being recalled. The PAC submitted at least 4,850 for each. The move was precipitated by the firing last October of Town Manager Scott Crabtree.Page explained her process.?Signatures shifted from print to cursive,” she said. “People?s names were misspelled – there was either a letter that shouldn?t be there, or letters were omitted. No effort was made to disguise the writing style.”Page said the Board of Registrars went through page 1 to 358 on Nov. 25, and pages 358 to 390 were verified on Nov. 26.Page speculated that there may be problems with signatures on petitions regarding the other three selectmen as well.?(Faiella?s) is probably similar – if not identical – to the other candidates? petitions,” she said. “I physically flipped through the pages. I went back and forth to compare.”Save Our BOS has set up a website, saveourbos.org, for residents to search the list of 4,850 voters whose names were certified by the town clerk?s office as having signed the petition.?We don?t ever want this to happen again,” Gould said. “We plan on bringing the people who forged names to court.?The district attorney is reviewing it now,” Gould said. “But it?s not something that happens overnight. I don?t anticipate them having findings until after the recall after March 17.”David Lucas, the attorney representing the pro-selectmen PAC, said straight forgery carries penalties of up to 10 years in state prison. Forging names to election papers would carry an additional two-year sentence, he said.?I believe there are a few perpetrators,” Lucas said. “It?s an unusual circumstance. We are exploring all legal options regarding this, but whatever the final result is, these forgeries truly taint this recall election, and I would go so far as to say that it is an unfortunate embarrassment for the town of Saugus.”Like Lucas, Page said this is the largest number of allegedly forged signatures she?s ever encountered in a one-month period.Saugus isn?t the first place to have seen this happen. Gould said a similar situation occurred in Lancaster last May.?The state intervened and, sure enough, someone did sign for someone else,” Gould said. “They found out who it was. It?s important that people know about it.”Bob Long, former town moderator, former selectman and former chair of the Planning Board, said he is shocked.?If this is true, I?m surprised,” Long said. “There will be criminal ramifications. This is something that?s never happened before in Saugus. It?s a messy situation, and it?s more than I?ve ever seen in my time.”Long said in some cases, one voter appeared to have signed for more than 50 people.?The people who serve on Board of Registrars (who certified the signatures) don?t have the expertise to decide if they?ve been tampered with,” Long said. “The case was brought before the secretary of state and then referred to