This story originally appeared in the Grand Haven Tribune.
HOLLAND, Mich. -- Brandon Hall is facing felony charges again on a four-year-old election forgery case that has been disputed all the way up to the Michigan Supreme Court.
The 26-year-old Grand Haven man waived his arraignment Thursday, Aug. 4, after Ottawa County District Judge Bradley Knoll approved a motion by the state Attorney General’s Office to bind the case over to Ottawa County Circuit Court.
A future court date has yet to be set.
This follows the state Supreme Court ruling of June 29 that Hall should be charged under a felony statute, as the Attorney General’s Office has been pushing all along.
Both sides confirmed that the facts of the case have never been in question and agreed that no new information was needed.
The 10-count felony charge, for making up signatures on a petition for judicial candidate Chris Houghtaling, has been reinstated.
Knoll originally agreed with Hall’s former defense attorney, Donald Hann, that the defendant should be charged under a misdemeanor statute. Knoll refused to send the case to the higher court.
Hann, who has since retired, argued that the warning on the petition notes that anyone who signs another person’s name on the document could be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Hall is now being represented by Hann’s associate, Anna White.
At the misdemeanor level, fines go up to $500 and the maximum jail time is 93 days.
The Attorney General’s Office filed an appeal in Ottawa County Circuit Court, but Judge Jon Van Allsburg affirmed the lower court’s decision, keeping the charges at the misdemeanor level. The Attorney General’s Office then filed with the Michigan Court of Appeals, which also affirmed the lower court’s ruling.
With each appeal, the Attorney General’s Office claimed that Hall intended to defraud election canvassers when he forged the signatures while riding in the back seat of the aspiring judge’s car on the way to turn in the petitions in Lansing.
Houghtaling had hired Hall to acquire the needed signatures to file as a candidate for an open Ottawa County District Court post. Hall said that when he realized they needed more signatures, he used a local phone book and started filling in the blanks.
Following Thursday’s hearing, Hall said that he plans to go to trial and “having this fully litigated.”
“I appreciated Judge Knoll’s fairness today, as well as throughout these proceedings,” Hall said Thursday. “I thought it was interesting he noted that he did not see any felon intent in the stipulated facts, and that is correct. I certainly never had any intention of committing a felony.”
Hall was convicted in 2010 for stealing from a school fundraiser while he was a member of the Grand Haven school board. He has remained active in politics and was defeated in this week’s Republican primary in an attempt to fill outgoing state Rep. Amanda Price’s 89th District seat.
