By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
December 29, 2025
A Chicago woman has pleaded guilty to a single counterfeiting charge in St. Joseph County, Indiana, for allegedly forging signatures on a candidate petition form in 2024.
Karina Escobar Perez, 27, entered the guilty plea to a Level 6 felony in St. Joseph County Superior Court on Dec. 19 in the election fraud case. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 5, 2026.
A Level 6 felony carries a sentence from six months to two-and-a-half years and a fine of up to $10,000.
According to the Indiana Secretary of State’s office, the St. Joseph County Election and Voter Registration Office found irregularities on a set of candidate petitions that had been submitted in February 2024 in support of placing a presidential contender on the May 2024 primary ballot. Using the Indiana Statewide Voter Registration System, only 19 of the 530 voter signatures on the petitions were validated as legitimate.
The announcement from the Secretary of State’s office of the guilty plea did not identify the defendant, but St. Joseph County Clerk Amy Rolfes confirmed to The Indiana Citizen it was about Escobar Perez. Also, Rolfes said in the press release that the case highlights her commitment to election integrity.
“In Saint Joseph County, election fraud is not a conspiracy theory. It is real,” Rolfes said in the press release. “I want to commend my team for their attention to detail in all aspects of the election process, which led to the detection of this fraud.”
Escobar Perez’s attorneys, David Newman and Michael Tuszynski of Stanley Tuszynski & Newman in South Bend, declined on comment while the case remains pending. The St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s office, which represented the state, did not answer the phone on Monday.
St. Joseph County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Sanford issued an order on Dec. 19, which granted the motion to enter a plea of guilty pursuant to a plea agreement. The order sent electronically from the court on Monday could not be opened.
According to WNDU, the signatures were included on 53 petitions submitted to get Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips on Indiana’s May 2024 primary ballot. Several individuals whose names and signatures were on the petitions told investigators they had not signed the documents, WNDU reported. Also, according to WNDU, one person listed on the petitions had died in 2016.
In South Bend, ABC57News reported Escobar Perez was paid $5,000 by Campaign Engineers to gather 500 signatures in support of Phillips in five days.
Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales noted this was not the first case of election impropriety in St. Joseph County. In 2013, former county Democratic party chair Owen “Butch” Morgan was convicted and served six months in prison for allegedly forging voter signatures on a petition to get Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on Indiana’s 2008 primary ballot.
“This guilty plea underscores that disregarding our election laws will be pursued vigorously and violators will be held accountable under Indiana law,” Morales said in a press release. “We commend the diligence of local election officials and law enforcement partners whose efforts brought this case to light.”
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
