Mar. 21—GOSHEN — The last Goshen resident accused of election finance fraud had his initial hearing in Elkhart County Superior Court 3 on Thursday
Jose Elizalde met with Judge Teresa Cataldo to have an initial plea of "not guilty" entered on his behalf, learn charges, and schedule upcoming court dates.
Elizalde is charged with filing a fraudulent report, a Level 6 felony, and accepting a contribution made in another's name, a Class B misdemeanor, after allegedly filing fraudulent campaign finance reports during the 2022 Goshen School Board elections. He is one of five individuals charged in the case.
Mario Garber, Roger Nafziger, and Andrea Johnson are charged with the same. Allan Kauffman has the same charges but has five counts of the Class B misdemeanor.
Garber, Nafziger and Elizalde are current sitting board members. Kauffman resigned from the board Feb. 26, citing health concerns. Board members are expected to vote on his replacement on Saturday.
Elizalde's omnibus date is May 8, status conference May 22, pretrial conference June 26, and jury trial is scheduled for July 8.
BACKGROUND
The charges stem from the 2022 school board election in which contributions were reportedly gathered and distributed to candidates to help pay for a mailer against three other candidates.
The mailer was sent to Elkhart Township residents Oct. 29, at a cost of $11,770, through Maple Leaf Printing.
At the April 27, 2023, Elkhart County Election Board hearing, which is the body that turned over evidence to the Elkhart County Prosecutor, fines were issued to about 40 people for campaign violations.
During testimony leading up to the board's finding, Allan Kauffman, who also happened to be Goshen Community School board candidate Jose Elizalde's campaign chairman, said he was approached by Sue Neeb, a retired school teacher, who was not charged with the five, because of concerns she had about 2022 Primary Election school board candidates Rob Roeder, Ryan Glick and Linda Hartman.
The trio are associated with Purple for Parents, an advocacy group that speaks out against Critical Race Theory, Social Emotional Learning, and the state's obscenity loophole, among other topics.
Neeb was concerned about the future of local education should the P4P candidates gain elected office. At the time, Kauffman said Neeb had wished to remain anonymous to prevent backlash of her husband's business. Kauffman told her if she gathered the funds, he'd see to it that a mailer could be distributed.
Once the funds were collected, Kauffman said he distributed them among Goshen School Board election candidates' campaigns, including those of Elizalde, Garber, Nafziger and Johnson. Those campaign finance committees then paid Maple Leaf Printing for the cost of the mailer.