By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
February 17, 2026
The woman who pleaded guilty to counterfeiting signatures on election petition forms in St. Joseph County has been sentenced to one-year probation and a $1,000 fine.
Karina Escobar Perez of Chicago entered a guilty plea in December to a Level 6 felony for counterfeiting voters’ signatures on a petition to help get Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips on Indiana’s May 2024 primary ballot. She was sentenced at a hearing on Feb. 5.
The case is State of Indiana v. Karina Escobar Perez, 71D03-2507-F6-676.
After the sentencing hearing, Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales said the Escobar Perez case is an example that the Hoosier State will investigate and prosecute election fraud.
“Election integrity is the foundation of our electoral process,” Morales said in a statement. “This case sends a clear message that violating our election laws will not be tolerated in Indiana.”
According to the probable cause affidavit, Escobar Perez was paid $5,000 by “a woman named Jen” to pay other people that Escobar Perez recruited to help collect signatures for Phillips. Escobar Perez told investigators with the Indiana State Police that she was under a lot of pressure because she had only five days to get all of the signatures.
Subsequently, Escobar Perez paid her siblings $50 each to sign the petition carrier forms, even though they had not collected any of the signatures, and she kept the rest of the money. She said she was then directed by Jen to file the petition for presidential primary ballot placement forms at the St. Joseph County Clerk’s Office in South Bend.
However, according to the affidavit, the office rejected the forms because they were missing city and zip codes. Escobar Perez told investigators that when the office refused the forms, she returned to her car and called Jen, who, she said, advised her to fill out the incomplete portion of the forms. Escobar Perez said she spent about 30 minutes filling in the missing information by looking up the addresses on her cellphone.
Going back into the office, Escobar Perez was then able to file the 53 petitions.
Later, as the clerk’s office staff reviewed the petitions from Escobar Perez, they noticed several inconsistencies. In particular, the petitions contained registered voters’ addresses and signatures that did not match the addresses and signatures the office had on file for those individuals, and the petitions listed city, state and zip code for the registered voters but no residential street addresses.
Investigators then contacted Phillips’ campaign manager, Zach Grauman, who told them Campaign Engineers, a private company, had been hired to get the signatures required to get the candidate on the Indiana ballot. Grauman also told investigators that Campaign Engineers refused to explain how the company was verifying the signatures being collected.
The secretary of state’s office said in December that only 19 of the 530 signatures that Escobar Perez submitted were valid.
As part of the plea agreement, Escobar Perez acknowledged a Level 6 felony carries a prison term of up to two-and-a-half years and a fine of up to $10,000.
St. Joseph County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Sanford suspended Escobar Perez’s one-year sentence of incarceration to probation and gave her the option of serving her probation in either St. Joseph County or Cook County, Illinois. Also, along with the $1,000 fine, she was assessed court costs.
The St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment. Escobar Perez’s attorney, Michael Tuszynski, of Stanley Tuszynski & Newman in South Bend, did not respond to a request for comment.
Morales commended local election officials and law enforcement for their work on this case.
“Let this serve as a reminder: anyone who attempts to undermine the integrity of our elections will be held accountable,” Morales said in a statement. “My office will continue working alongside state and local partners to protect and uphold the confidence Hoosiers place in our election system.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
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
