An arrest warrant has been issued for the signature collector accused of turning in forged signatures on petitions for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jon Keyser.
Maureen Moss has been formally charged with 34 felony counts of forgery, but has not yet been arrested.
Including the first 10 forged signatures Denver7 uncovered, investigators with the District Attorney's Offices in Denver, Arapahoe and Jefferson Counties have 34 voters who have confirmed they did not sign their names and addresses on the petitions turned in by Moss.
They have identified 17 voters with forged signatures in Denver, 10 in Jefferson County and seven in Arapahoe County. The Denver District Attorney's Office is the lead investigating agency.
Denver7's reporting is referenced multiple times as part of the supporting information used to obtain the arrest warrant.
On May 3, Denver7 broke the story that a voter had her name forged on a petition for Keyser.
On May 10, Denver7 broke the story that 10 voters confirmed with us that their names and signatures were forgedon petitions for Keyser. Since then, Denver7 has confirmed a total of 13 forged signatures.
Seven additional voters signed affidavits saying their signatures were forged. Those affidavits were part of a lawsuit that wanted a judge to negate any votes cast for Keyser. That lawsuit was thrown out last week for being untimely.
According to the arrest warrant obtained by Denver7 on Tuesday, Black Diamond Outreach, the company that employed Moss, had concerns with two of the signatures she had collected about halfway through the signature collection process. They questioned her about those signatures on two occasions, but she denied any wrongdoing.
One of the notaries for Black Diamond Outreach "noticed something 'fishy' with the M's," according to the warrant.
The senior product manager, James Rankin, who trained Moss and other signature collectors, advised her field manager to talk with her about the concern.
"(Rankin) wasn't present for the conversation but he was told that she denied having any knowledge of any forged signatures," the warrant stated.
According to field manager Justin Card, "he informed her that he and others had spotted a pattern in the signatures she provided and he wanted to give her an 'opportunity to come clean.' He stated Ms. Moss was 'as cool as a cucumber,' and told him she didn't know what he was talking about. He then explained the legal ramifications to her, the company and the client if she submitted fraudulent signatures, but Ms. Moss continued to deny having any knowledge of forged signatures."
On May 23, Moss refused to answer Denver7's questions about how she turned in petitions with forged signatures on them.
The arrest warrant also reveals that Moss made $232 in bonuses. Black Diamond Outreach paid a bonus of $2 for every signature above and beyond 20 signatures collected in a day.
According to the Secretary of State's Office, Moss turned in 566 signatures, with 488 accepted as valid.
The warrant also describes how signatures would be collected. Moss was issued an iPad and was supposed to ask three questions to each voter:
- Will you please sign the petition?
- After hearing more, will you sign?
- Can Jon Keyser depend on your vote?
On seven of the signatures that voters say are forged, the majority of those fields were filled in, even though the voter says they never were contacted to sign the petition.
Anyone with information about her Moss' whereabouts is asked to call the non-emergency number for their local law enforcement agency.