Disgraced former state Sen. Ernest E. Newton II found himself back in trouble with the law Friday after he was busted on campaign finance fraud charges stemming from his failed bid to regain his old seat in Hartford.
And the ex-con from the city's East End could soon find himself heading back to prison as well for violating the terms of supervised release that came from his 2005 corruption conviction.
Newton, 56, of 190 Read St., is accused of falsifying documents to obtain $80,550 from the state's Citizen Election Program to fund his campaign for the 23rd District State Senate seat last year.
[...]
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Newton was $500 short of the $15,000 he needed to raise in private contributions to qualify for the public funds. To make up the difference, Newton is accused of having five campaign workers sign cards stating they had contributed to the campaign, when they actually had not done so.
After Newton's campaign submitted the documents to the state Elections Enforcement Commission, he got the grant.
Newton is also accused of telling one of the campaign workers not to talk to the EEC after investigators contacted her, resulting in the witness tampering charge.
MLN is powered by