MILWAUKEE (WRN) - A state legislator will not be charged with falsifying the nomination papers he filed to get on the ballot last fall. But another woman was charged Thursday with forging 10 signatures on the papers of that same lawmaker – Assembly Democrat Pedro Colon of Milwaukee. And a memo from the Justice Department said Colon himself certified 4 false signatures. But investigators said Colon had still 41 more valid signatures than he needed to get on the ballot – and they could not find evidence of intentional wrongdoing. The probe was done at the request of Laura Manriquez, who ran in last year’s Assembly primary and lost to Colon. She said addresses on the incumbent’s papers were incomplete – and some signatures had the same handwriting. 42-year-old Yadira Colon, who’s not related to the lawmaker, is accused of forging 10 signatures. She’s also accused of using an improper address to vote absentee last year. Her last known address is a prison in Pennsylvania. Yadira Colon is charged 2 counts of election fraud and 2 counts of falsifying nomination signatures. The Justice Department said convicting Pedro Colon and making him leave office would be “excessively harsh” and contrary to the will of the voters in his district. The department’s memo was written in August but was not made public until Thursday, when the new charges were filed.
