Former Goshen mayor sentenced in election fraud scandal

Yahoo

27-04-2025

GOSHEN — Goshen's former mayor will serve a suspended sentence on probation after pleading guilty and being sentenced in court Friday.
Allan Kauffman, who served as mayor of Goshen from 1997 to 2015, was subsequently charged with election fraud while serving as a member of the Goshen Community Schools Board of Trustees in 2022. On Friday, he pleaded guilty to all six charges, without a plea agreement and skipped presentence investigation, moving straight on to sentencing.
Kauffman was one of three incumbent members of the Goshen School Board and one newcomer accused of election fraud after they released a costly mailer to addresses in Elkhart Township. According to Elkhart County Superior Court 3 Judge Teresa Cataldo, Kauffman was the ringleader.
'Because others entrusted that you would know that law since you're the one that has been in the public service for so long, they put their trust in you,' Cataldo said. 'Because of your position, people will listen to you. People expect you to know what to do and they trust that you will give them advice that won't get them into trouble.'
Cataldo argued that Kauffman held a greater responsibility.
'You have had a dedicated life to the service of the public,' Cataldo said.
School board members, Jose Elizalde, Mario Garber, Roger Nafziger and non incumbent Andrea Johnson, were all running for Goshen Community School Board. Kauffman reportedly gathered and distributed $11,770 among the four candidates as Elizalde's campaign chairman. The funds were divided among the four candidates and then pulled to release a mailer denouncing three of the other 2022 candidates Rob Roeder, Ryan Glick and Linda Hartman, and their connection to Purple For Parents on Oct. 29.
During an Elkhart County Election Board hearing on April 27, 2023, Kauffman said he was approached by retired school teacher Sue Neeb because of concerns she had about the Purple for Parents-affiliated school board candidates.
Neeb allegedly told Kauffman she was concerned about the future of local education should Purple for Parents-endorsed candidates Roeder, Glick and Hartman gain elected office. Kauffman said the teacher wished to remain anonymous to prevent backlash of her husband's business. The teacher gathered the funds and Kauffman distributed them between the four election candidates, whose campaign finance committees paid Maple Leaf Printing for the cost of the mailer. They listed Kauffman as the donor on campaign finance forms, which the election board later discovered was technically untrue. Per election law, any person who donates more than $100 toward a campaign should be listed on finance forms.
The Elkhart County Election Board found that Neeb had collected funds from a total of 32 individuals and, while she did keep some records, election law dictates that donors offer name, address, occupation, date, and dollar amount for all donations — and Neeb did not collect all of the necessary information.
Each of the five individuals were charged with filing a fraudulent report, a Level 6 felony. All but Kauffman were charged with a single count of accepting a contribution made in another's name, a Class B misdemeanor, after allegedly filing fraudulent campaign finance reports. Kauffman, has the same charges but has five counts of the Class B misdemeanor instead of just one.
Garber, Nafziger and Elizalde are current sitting board members. Kauffman resigned from the board Feb. 26, 2024, citing health concerns. Keith Goodman was voted in as his replacement in late March.
Nafziger, Elizalde and Garber were sentenced by plea agreement last year, to filing a fraudulent report, a Level 6 felony, and the convictions were each entered as a Class A misdemeanor. The deal offered to the other members of the election fraud scandal was to plead guilty to the felony and be sentenced to 365 days at the Elkhart County Jail, suspended on reporting probation, with probation to be terminated after one weekend of a community-oriented work program. Prosecution has said they offered the same misdemeanor status to almost everyone involved in the case, or at the very least agreed to stay silent if it was requested.
But the offer would not stand for Kauffman, who was regarded by the state and apparently Judge Cataldo, too, as the ringleader, having collected and distributed the funds.
On Friday, Kauffman pleaded openly in court to all charges, without a plea agreement and went on directly to sentencing. Kauffman's attorney Peter Britton also said that Kauffman openly explained the circumstances and his part in the scandal to the Elkhart County Election Board, resulting in a fine of about $2,000 as a civil sanction for violations.
In addition, Britton explained that the money that was gathered was all used for the exact election purposes as Kauffman said it would be. A slew of supporters in attendance, and over a dozen letters in support of Kauffman's character were also submitted to the court during his sentencing, and Britton read a letter from Kauffman, who apologized to the court for his actions and explained the oversight, but did not speak much during the hearing himself.
Britton did further explain Kauffman's deteriorating health and declining mental state as a result of Parkinson's. Britton told the court that given the circumstances and his dwindling health due to a progressive neurological disorder and at 76-years-old, Kauffman has no intention of running in any future elections. Britton also explained as a mitigating factor that, diagnosed formally in 2024, Kauffman may have also been suffering from the same neurological deficits or psychosis during the situation in 2022.
'It's been difficult because with that history, he has made a name for himself in the community,' he said. 'And through his own conduct since this event transpired… his reputation has been damaged significantly and that's something that he finds very disturbing since he worked so hard to build that reputation up.'
Britton also asked that, like the other defendants, Kauffman's Level 6 felony be treated as a misdemeanor.
Elkhart County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kaitlynn Campoli argued that the incident was no mistake.
'Anyone who runs for public office should, at the bare minimum, be reading the rules and following those rules,' she said. 'Mr. Kauffman absolutely knew better. He was a prior elected official, mayor of the City of Goshen, he's very familiar with these processes and disclosures that must be made.'
Campoli argued that Kauffman was the mastermind and used his authority to lead the others in the fraud case.
'Mr. Kauffman was going to use whatever means possible to effectuate his goals,' Campoli said. 'Given that he was an elected official, he held himself out as having authority and he knew others would be reliant on that and relied on him and his experiences.'
Cataldo appeared to agree with Campoli.
'Your intent was not to defraud, but it was an intent to deceive,' Cataldo said, saying she didn't know why people who wanted to donate to those campaigns didn't just donate to those campaigns. 'The fact that this is coming up and others depended on your expertise in this area and now they are faced with felony charges also, I understand that you might feel remorse for that, but that doesn't negate the fact that you were the one in this instance that was entrusted to make sure that all of these things would be done correctly and they weren't.'
Cataldo said she was struggling to give credence to the law of Indiana but also expectations toward what happens when someone breaks election law.
'It didn't harm any specific person or property, but what I do think it harmed is the democratic system itself, because everybody thinks that politicians can't be trusted, politicians are always lying and politicians are always trying to hide something,' Cataldo said. 'In this case, the politician was trying to hide something and that means politicians can't be trusted. You haven't harmed any one person, but this has severely harmed the system, and it's a system that I try to upload and I hold very near and dear to my heart.'
Kauffman was sentenced on Count 1, filing a fraudulent report, a Level 6 felony, to one year at the Elkhart County Correctional Facility suspended on reporting probation; Counts 2 through 6, all reckless contribution to a campaign, a Class B misdemeanor, to 180 days at the Elkhart County Jail suspended on one year of reporting probation. All sentences to be served concurrently.
He was also fined $10,000, and the fine was suspended.
One of the accused remains unconvicted. Andrea Johnson is the only individual accused who had never run for public office before the 2022 election. Her jury trial was scheduled for May 12, but on Wednesday a motion for continuance was filed. A hearing on the motion will be held on April 30.