PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - An attorney who worked with former political candidate Annette Bosworth said Thursday that he didn’t give her legal advice that led to her alleged election law violations, contradicting the defense Bosworth’s lawyers have established in her high-profile trial.
The jury in the case heard from a stream of witnesses, including Bosworth’s former attorney and political consultant Joel Arends. Jurors will decide the fate of the 43-year-old Sioux Falls physician who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2014.
Bosworth is accused of election law violations that include being out of the country during a time when her petitions to get on the ballot say she was gathering signatures. Bosworth has said she’s the target of “political persecution” and has pleaded not guilty to perjury and filing false documents.
Bosworth’s legal team has cast her as a rookie candidate who took advice from Arends, who they say told her she properly could call herself the petitions’ “circulator” because they were circulated under her direction.
But under South Dakota law, the person circulating the petitions must witness the signings from registered voters. An attorney for Bosworth said earlier in the trial that her biggest mistake was relying on Arends’ advice.
Defense attorney Dana Hanna on Thursday characterized Arends as having significant election law experience, but in referring to Bosworth made it clear that “politics was not her profession.”
But Arends countered that Bosworth actually had an “unusually high level of the knowledge” of the requirements for filling out nominating petitions, including the requirement that she had to witness the signatures. He also said that it’s a “lie” that he advised her otherwise.
“She absolutely and definitely knew the proper way to fill out a nominating petition,” he said.
An arrest affidavit shows Bosworth attested to personally gathering signatures when she was on a publicized medical mission trip in the Philippines. According to the affidavit, she also attested to gathering signatures on some Hutterite colonies, but witnesses from Hutterite colonies testified Thursday that Bosworth wasn’t there when they signed the documents.
Prosecutors have said that Bosworth is charged with perjury for making a false statement about a material fact. They’ve said that by signing a verification form, Bosworth admitted to having been present when voters signed the petitions even though she wasn’t.
Bosworth received 6 percent of the vote in the June 3, 2014, five-way primary for the Republican nomination.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.