Phoenix, Arizona - Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced Thursday that a State Grand Jury indicted Lorenzo U. Herrera a/k/a Larry Herrera, a former candidate for the Arizona Senate, on 34 felony counts including Attempted Fraudulent Schemes and Practices, Forgery, and Perjury.
The charges arise from Herrera’s attempt to qualify for Clean Elections Funding in 2018. The indictment alleges that Herrera offered or presented forged Citizens Clean Elections Commission Qualifying Contribution forms to the Secretary of State’s Office and that on each of those forms he perjured himself by falsely asserting that he had obtained $5.00 qualifying contributions from individuals. To do this, Herrera purportedly took the identities of sixteen individuals with the goal of attempting to obtain money from the Citizens Clean Elections Fund.
Assistant Attorney General Todd Lawson is prosecuting the case.
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office recently launched its Election Integrity Unit (EIU) webpage that includes an online election complaint form. EIU was created with the support of the Arizona Legislature to combat reports of voter fraud. Currently, EIU has more than two dozen active criminal and civil investigations.
All defendants are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law.