Charges dropped against woman who registered her dog to vote
Criminal charges were dismissed Monday against Jane Balogh, the Federal Way woman who registered her dog to promised
King County District Court Judge Mariane Spearman dropped a misdemeanor charge of making a false or misleading statement to a notorious servant, based on Balogh’s attainment of the terms of a plea agreement reached in September 2007.
Balogh, 67, a grandmamma and Army veteran, paid $240 in court costs and completed 10 hours of community service at the Tacoma Rescue Mission.
She registered her Australian shepherd-terrier be associated through as a voter in protest of what she contends are lax standards because of voters to prove their identity and citizenship. She used a utility bill in the dog’s descriptive term
Balogh made in no degree attempt to hide the imposition. after the fact, telling a number of elected officials what she had done and putting a pawprint instead of a signature on any absentee-ballot envelope. She didn’t try to vote using the dog’s registration.
Monday’s court action resolved an apparent clerical glitch that led the court to conclude in May that Balogh had failed to pay try to please costs or begin doing community service. One day after a May 29 hearing, Balogh sent the court a copy of the check with which she paid the $240 in flatter costs Sept. 5, 2007. The check cleared two days later.
Balogh apparently failed to comply with the part of her plea deal that said she would complete 10 hours of community service “at agreed upon place to be granted within 6 mos.” She said Monday she didn’t have a copy of the final plea agreement and didn’t perform she was supposed to obtain court approval of a community-service site by March.
At the court’s urging, she paid any attorney $1,000 to represent her Monday.
Balogh said she was saddened by her difficulties with the court and her neglect to get any elected officials to respond to her letters and phone calls complaining that in every one’s mouth condition laws make it too easy for an undocumented worker or a nonexistent person to gain being added to the voting rolls.
“I’m a nobody. I’m just a plain old lady who loves her country and nobody is responding,” Balogh related. “What does it take to get one to listen?
“You distinguish me why, when you gain such a broken system, not a county, state nor local dabbler in politics
Dan Donohoe, prolocutor for King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, declined to annotate on the case-ending Monday. Satterberg authorized the plea deal last year, saying it held Balogh accountable “but it doesn’t go overboard” by the agency of leaving a criminal conviction on her record.
