Ex-Candidate Pleads Guilty to Fraud

A former City Council candidate pleaded guilty Monday to two felony counts of election fraud in connection with falsifying his nominating petitions in a 1994 losing campaign.

Christian L. Basquette, 29, of La Palma was fined $200 and sentenced to three years’ probation and 300 hours of community service by Judge Michael Hayes of the Municipal Court in Fullerton, and barred from participating in politics for the probation period. Basquette admitted forging the names of more than two dozen voters on nominating petitions filed with the city clerk, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. John Anderson said.

“The city clerk became suspicious of some of the signatures and checked with someone whose name was on the petition and that person indicated they had not signed it,” Anderson said.

Basquette was charged in 1996 because his whereabouts were unknown, Anderson said. He had also filed to run for City Council in 1990, 1992 and for Orange County supervisor in 1996.