Simon Ting

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown's office just released more information about the Jimmy Meng aide charged in the voter fraud case. The 36 people whose voter information was allegedly fudged by the aide, Simon Ting, didn't actually vote. But Ting still faces up to four years in jail.

Interestingly, the DA said that there was a "watch list" of suspect voters, meaning the office had been monitoring this situation since before the 2004 election.  read more »

In a brief conversation yesterday, Ting's lawyer, John Theodorellis, told me his client pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown's office just released more information about the Jimmy Meng aide charged in the voter fraud case. The 36 people whose voter information was fudged by the aide, Simon Ting, didn't actually vote. But Ting still faces up to four years in jail.

What's interesting is that the DA said there was a "watch list" of suspect voters, meaning they had been monitoring this situation since before that 2004 election. So patient these prosecutors.

In a brief conversation yesterday, Ting's lawyer, John Theodorellis, told me his client pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

From the DA:

District Attorney Brown said that, according to the charges, detectives assigned to his Detective Bureau identified thirty-six voter registration filings made by the defendant between May 28, 2004, and August 20, 2004, which indicated that the individuals registering to vote resided within the 22nd Assembly District. In fact, according to the complaint, the individuals either did not live within the district or only worked there. In many cases, the forms allegedly had the original address or phone number whited-out or had been filled out in the defendant's own handwriting. The inserted addresses noted on the forms included 137-27 Geranium Avenue - the defendant's home address at the time - and 135-29 Roosevelt Avenue - the site of Chung Hwa Books, which is owned by Assemblyman Meng. Both addresses allegedly allowed the defendant the opportunity to receive any mailings on their behalf. In most cases, it is alleged, the individuals had signed the registration forms after attending a banquet for a primary candidate or after being approached on the street. The District Attorney noted that all 36 registrations were placed on a watch list before the primary election and that none of the people voted or attempted to vote and that the registrations were subsequently cancelled by the Board of Elections. The investigation did not uncover any evidence that anyone other than the defendant participated in the scheme.

-- Azi Paybarah

Two years after Jimmy Meng narrowly defeated incumbent Assemblyman Barry Grodenchik by less than 200 votes on his way to becoming the first Asian-American state lawmaker, an aide to Meng has surrendered to the Queens District Attorney on charges that he faked voter registration documents.

According to a spokesman for the Queens DA Richard Brown, the aide, 42-year-old Simon Ting, surrendered to authorities earlier today and is going to be arraigned with a Class E Felony in relation to at least 36 fraudulent voter registration forms.

Ting, who was an administrative aide to Meng up until December 31st, 2006, allegedly used his own home address in Flushing in order to register 17 voters and used a bookstore owned by Meng as the home address for dozens of other voters, according to Brown's spokesman.

The spokesman also said it appeared that Ting acted alone and without the cooperation of Meng, who did not stand for re-election and was succeeded this year by Ellen Young.

There had been questions about voting irregularities immediately following the election, but when the DA's office looked into the matter at the time, they were careful to refer to their actions as a review and not an investigation.

Update: Jimmy Meng, Ting's former employer, released the following statement:

While I am sad to hear of today's news, it is important to note that it had no impact on my 2004 victory which we all worked hard for. In addition, our community is forever grateful for Simon's love and concern for the community. We should not discount that fact that he has dedicated the last few years in serving and working hard for everyone in the community.

-- Azi Paybarah