Paid Petition Circulator Testifies In Court Trial Challenging Signatures For Nebraska Medical Marijuana Measure

“I try to be as honest and good as I can and make my children and myself and my husband proud.”

By Zach Wendling, Nebraska Examiner

A paid circulator for the Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana campaign took the stand in a civil case Thursday in favor of efforts to toss allegedly “fraudulent” or “malfeasant” petition signatures.

It was the second day in the trial challenging signatures in two medical cannabis ballot measures. Testimony continued Thursday from John “Jake” Brennan, a fraud investigator in the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office. Jennifer Henning, a paid petition circulator from Omaha for the petitions to legalize and regulate medical cannabis, testified later in the day.

Regardless of the outcome of the trial, which continues Friday, Nebraskans are voting on the measures, which appear on the general election ballot.

The lawsuit alleges the campaign didn’t collect the necessary 86,499 signatures for ballot access because of alleged notary malfeasance or circulator fraud.

First circulator takes the stand

Henning, a commercial and residential property inspector, told Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong that she illegally signed off on 18 signatures for the campaign from Seward County that she did not personally collect. She alleged she then passed them off to ballot sponsor Crista Eggers, who Henning alleged illegally notarized those invalid signatures.

“The only communication I had with her was through text message, and she was asking me about these petitions that I dropped the previous week,” Henning testified.

Attorneys in the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, who are representing Secretary of State Bob Evnen (R) in the lawsuit, walked through at least 10 petition pages with Henning that she said she circulated but that Eggers signed about 11 days after Henning dropped them off.

On Tuesday, officials with the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office said petition circulators must affirm they collected the signatures on the petition sheets in the physical presence of a notary, who must notarize that form in the circulator’s presence.

Henning said she joined the campaign in 2022 to support her children, particularly her son who she said is profoundly disabled and has a variety of symptoms, including severe behaviors and epileptic seizures.

Before civil and criminal investigators reached out to Henning earlier this month, she testified, she never knew of the circulator-notary requirement and said she’d also dropped off petition sheets to at least two other notaries or incorrectly signed her oath at her kitchen table.

“I thought I was doing Crista a favor,” Henning said. “I would have never put myself in that position had I known that.”

Henning said she has been “ostracized” from the campaign and alleged Eggers instructed campaign workers to delete related text messages.

Eggers, a prospective witness in the case, started the campaign to help her young son, who also has severe seizures.

‘I’m not on trial’

Attorney Alex Arkfeld, representing the petition sponsors, homed in on Henning’s past interactions with Nebraska courts, including two felony convictions involving fraudulent insurance fraud of more than $5,000. Henning pleaded guilty to those charges in 2022. She is currently on probation and continuing to repay thousands of dollars to the defrauded companies.

Henning said the two fraud counts came after her insurance company wouldn’t cover a feeding tube formula her son needed, which cost $3,000 per month. She said that her son also needed a wheelchair, and on top of home issues involving a septic tank, her family was in severe debt.

“I made really, really bad decisions that I’m embarrassed by, I’m ashamed of,” Henning said. “I’ve taken accountability. I’m on probation. I have rebuilt my life.”

Arkfeld noted earlier interactions Henning had in Nebraska courts where she submitted forged or fraudulent documents and was sanctioned by Douglas County District Judge James Masteller in a 2020 for taking photos of privileged attorney documents in a case against Children’s Hospital and later uploading them to Facebook.

Masteller cited at least three other infractions involving various courts in 2013, 2014 and 2015. He wrote that Henning “has an extensive history of perpetrating fraud and engaging in misconduct in court proceedings.”

“I’ve done a lot of horrible things, and I know you want to keep hitting on those,” Henning said. “I’m not on trial.”

Henning said she walks in daily fear of getting a parking or speeding ticket because of the conditions of her probation.

A campaign ‘filled with integrity’

Arkfeld asked repeatedly whether Henning was offered any benefit in exchange for testifying, she said “no” and said she understood she could be charged at any time.

“You can tear my credibility, you can tear my character down,” Henning continued. “I’m not proud of anything that I did in my past, but every day I wake up and put one foot forward, and I try to be as honest and good as I can and make my children and myself and my husband proud.”

Arkfeld played a 15-minute recording that Henning submitted to Evnen’s attorneys Wednesday night, of a campaign phone call led by Eggers shortly after the September 12 lawsuit was filed and after the measures were certified September 13.

In the recording, Eggers said the campaign didn’t need to worry about the lawsuit and could be thankful of the efforts of those on the call in getting the petition measures onto the ballot.

“Our campaign is filled with integrity, and from Day One we’ve always been fighting for November 5. That’s been our fight all along,” Eggers said in the recording. “I want us to continue being strong and being absolutely committed to November 5 as the day Nebraskans get the chance to vote on this.”

Under questioning, Henning confirmed that Eggers never instructed anyone to violate the law or act unethically during the recorded call.

Henning, under questioning by Justin Hall with the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, alleged that in another meeting, Eggers had instructed campaign workers to violate the law, but she did not produce a recording of such a discussion.

‘A culmination of errors’

Early Thursday, Brennan, a certified fraud investigator, testified that his investigation included circulators who had a signature rejection rate higher than 50 percent.

He confirmed he did not talk to the notaries alleged to have committed malfeasance, which he outlined as:

• Having no notary signature (nine signatures).
• No notary stamp (57 signatures).
• A notarization not completed in the presence of the circulator (583 signatures).
• A notarization without a circulator’s signature (110 signatures).
• Self-notarization (235 signatures).
• Some other “notarial errors” (107 signatures).

Among those more general errors was crossing out an inaccurate notary stamp or signature, which sometimes incorrectly came from the circulator. On some of the examples shown in court, campaign workers had affixed a corrected stamp or a signature from a different notary.

David Wilson Jr., associate general counsel for the Secretary of State’s Office and director of licensing, including for notaries, testified Tuesday that crossing out bad notarizations is part of the guidance from Wilson’s office, but not the law. Wilson did note that the notary is attached to the circulator’s oath, so a second, new circulator’s signature might also be required.

Of 1,110 signatures directly identified as malfeasant, 706 were for the campaign’s legalization petition and 394 were for the regulatory petition.

Attorney Daniel Gutman, representing the ballot sponsors, said the AG’s Office is then extending those hundreds of signatures to tens of thousands more—the office is alleging 49,187 “tainted” signatures on the legalization petition and 30,610 “tainted” signatures on the regulatory petition.

Evnen previously certified nearly 90,000 signatures on both measures.

Brennan said his investigatory process was about the totality of evidence and circumstances. He noted, for example, that notaries must be state licensed, but circulators do not.

“When I was looking at these, it would be a culmination of errors,” Brennan said of his process. “When you see things like multiple instances of missing a notary stamp, multiple instances of self notarization, those types of things come together.”

Gutman asked Brennan if it’s possible some of the errors could have been mistakes and not intentional, like forgetting a notary stamp or signature.

Brennan responded, “Correct.”

Experience as a fraud investigator

Brennan, responding to questions from Deputy Solicitor General Zach Viglianco, said he could “certainly” draw inferences on the number of times someone had problems and that if someone engages in some sort of intentional wrongful conduct, it calls into question other conduct they engage in.

“Is that something that happens in your experience as a fraud investigator?” Viglianco asked.

“Yes,” Brennan responded.

When Gutman asked whether Brennan had investigated Henning’s past, Brennan said he found online “only what was in the paper” and had not looked into Henning’s other legal history.

The trial continues at 8 a.m. Friday. If needed, it could extend to Monday. The trial was originally scheduled for a maximum of three days. Election Day is Tuesday.

This story was first published by Nebraska Examiner.

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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.