The district attorney responsible for deciding whether or not to prosecute the 12 to 14 adult residents of a home in Guthrie with voter fraud says she could not file charges because there was insufficient evidence that the crime of voter fraud had occurred.
Laura Thomas is the District Attorney who was given information of potential voter fraud by Logan County Election Board Secretary Sheeleen Winscott concerning the residents of a home located at 1212 Mockingbird Lane in Guthrie.
Residents of the home include Daniel Navejas and 11 to 13 other Guthrie residents who have taken control of the Logan County Republican Party.
Winscott told Southwest Ledger she forwarded information dealing with potential voter fraud to her superiors at the Oklahoma Election Board who, in turn, instructed her to refer the matter to the Logan County District Attorney.
Thomas said she reviewed the information and since the home’s residences all had current, valid voter registration cards, she could see no violation of state election laws.
“No crime was presented (to me),” Thomas told the Ledger in two lengthy interviews. “I couldn’t find a crime.”
She said it is not uncommon to have voting irregularities occasionally because people often move and registrations don’t get changed or a variety of other reasons.
“Their registration cards were in order,” she said of the house’s residents’ registration cards.
Thomas said district attorneys don’t investigate crimes, the prosecute them. If the election board suspected fraud, she said, Winscott should have taken the matter to local law enforcement to initiate an investigation.
“D.A.s don’t investigate,” she reiterated. “They prosecute. I looked at it (the information provided by Winscott) and just couldn’t find a crime. I couldn’t find anything more suspicious.”
She said proving voter fraud, even in the best of circumstances, “would be no slam dunk.” She noted that many families often have large numbers of people living together.
“Why are we assuming they moved into this house to do something nefarious?” Thomas asked.
Thomas said there is “a group of people” in Guthrie who hate “Dan Ladd” who used to live in and own the Mockingbird home. His daughter is a current resident of the home.
Dan Ladd also was involved with the religious group that now lives in the Mockingbird home.
“There’s an element (of Guthrie residents) who hate Dan Ladd’s guts and it has nothing to do with something nefarious like who’s living and voting in that house,” Thomas stated.