Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009

LS man found not guilty of election fraud

Miranda Wycoff, Journal Staff

Matthew Ranville was found not guilty on Thursday after a jury trial in the 16th Circuit Court of Jackson County.

Ranville was charged with a felony election offense and it was argued that he falsely signed affidavits that he witnessed signatures on a petition to recall city councilwoman Kathy Hofmann.

“I just want to move on and leave this all behind,” Hofmann told the Journal Thursday. “We can’t look back.”

According to the probable cause statement for Janine Thomspon, who pleaded guilty to the same charges in June, 11 of the duplicated signatures reported by multiple forgery victims were on pages signed by Ranville.

Additionally, the probable cause statement cites that an analysis by Don Locke, a forensic document examiner from Jefferson City, found that of the 20 pages submitted, 19 had irregularities in the signatures.

The report read that certain lines of those 19 pages were “highly probable” to be written by the same person.

The probable cause statement said Thompson signed eleven of those 19 pages as the circulator. Ranville signed eight, the statement read.

Ranville and his brother, partners in a Lee’s Summit development company, had clashed with Hofmann over a real estate project.

Hofmann eventually won the recall election in April 2007.

A judge declared a mistrial in Ranville’s first trial in July.