Federal agents captured a man accused of running a sprawling ballot petition fraud scheme that allegedly paid homeless people on Los Angeles's Skid Row to forge registered voters' signatures, a case prosecutors say strikes at the heart of California's initiative process.
James Brass, 47, known on the street as "Lord," slipped out of his Victorville home around 4:45 a.m. Thursday and drove off before FBI agents stationed outside could close in. The surveillance team tailed him to a nearby gas station, where they arrested him without incident shortly after 6 a.m., the New York Post reported.
A federal grand jury indicted Brass and two co-defendants, Courtney Price, 49, of Jacksonville, Florida, and Jateisha Herron, 33, of Boron, California, on charges of conspiracy to commit identity fraud in furtherance of a state felony. Brass and Price each face an additional count of identity fraud. All three face up to five years in prison per count if convicted.
Brass pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday in Riverside and was released on $10,000 bond. His trial is set for November 2.
The indictment alleges Brass ran the scheme through his company, Pinnacle Brass, which is registered with the California Secretary of State. From February through August, prosecutors say, the defendants used a database to identify registered California voters living on Skid Row, then handed those voters' stolen personal information to homeless individuals recruited as petition signers.
The signers were paid a few dollars each to copy the real voters' names and details onto ballot initiative petitions, and then sign those petitions as if they were the registered voters themselves. Brass allegedly collected signatures for roughly a dozen different ballot measures. In return, coordinators working with an unnamed petition management company allegedly paid him approximately $41,600.
California law allows voters to bypass the state legislature and place proposed statutes or constitutional amendments directly on the ballot, provided supporters gather enough valid signatures. For the 2026 cycle, initiative statutes required 546,651 valid signatures; constitutional amendments required 874,641. Campaigns routinely hire petition management firms to collect those signatures, and circulators are often paid per signature gathered, a system that creates obvious financial incentives to cut corners.
The alleged fraud went beyond forged signatures. Brass and Herron each signed sworn declarations, submitted under penalty of perjury, attesting that they had personally witnessed the named registered voters sign the petitions. Those declarations stated each signature was "the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be." Prosecutors say that was false.
The case is the latest in a series of federal law enforcement actions targeting election fraud on Skid Row, where the concentration of vulnerable, transient individuals makes the area a ripe target for exploitation.
The charges did not materialize from a routine audit. Just The News reported that the case originated from an undercover investigation conducted in March by independent journalist James O'Keefe. That investigation apparently provided the initial evidence that drew federal scrutiny to the Skid Row signature operation.
Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, framed the prosecution as a direct defense of the state's ballot initiative system. In a statement, Essayli said:
"These defendants used stolen identities of registered voters to manufacture signatures on ballot petitions used to shape California law. They preyed on the vulnerable homeless population and used them to try to cover their tracks."
Essayli added that his office would "vigorously investigate and charge anyone involved in corrupting our elections", language that signals more cases may follow.
The prosecution fits a broader pattern of federal election integrity enforcement. Earlier this year, a Honduran national was arrested on voter fraud charges in what the DOJ called its first case in a crackdown on noncitizen voter registration.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X after the Brass arrest, writing: "If you mess with our elections, this FBI will find you." Patel also stated that "securing American elections from criminal interference is of the upmost importance to this FBI."
The scheme's mechanics reveal how the per-signature payment model can be weaponized. Brass allegedly did not need the homeless individuals to vote or even to know whose names they were writing. He needed warm bodies willing to copy information from a sheet onto a petition line for pocket change. The real voters whose identities were stolen may never have known their names appeared on petitions they never signed.
That dynamic, paying vulnerable people small amounts to commit acts that carry serious legal consequences, is exactly what Essayli described as preying on the homeless population. The signers got a few dollars. Brass allegedly collected tens of thousands.
A separate federal case this year saw a Colombian illegal immigrant sentenced to three years for voter fraud and identity theft, underscoring the DOJ's willingness to pursue election-related identity crimes regardless of the defendant's background.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has identified 278,000 noncitizens on voter rolls nationwide, adding fuel to the argument that the country's election infrastructure has vulnerabilities that extend well beyond one Los Angeles sidewalk.
Several details remain unclear. The indictment does not name the petition management company that allegedly funneled payments to Brass through coordinators. Nor does it specify which ballot measures the forged signatures were meant to support. Whether those petitions reached official signature counts, or whether any fraudulent signatures were actually certified, is not addressed in the charging documents.
It is also unknown whether Price and Herron have been arrested or arraigned. The indictment names all three, but only Brass's arrest and court appearance are confirmed in available reporting.
The database allegedly used to identify registered voters on Skid Row has not been publicly identified. How the defendants obtained access to voter registration data, and whether any government system was compromised, remains an open question that could widen the scope of the investigation.
California's ballot initiative process is a cornerstone of the state's direct democracy tradition. It has produced landmark measures on taxes, criminal justice, and environmental regulation. But the per-signature payment model has long drawn criticism for creating exactly the kind of incentive structure prosecutors now allege Brass exploited: pay people to produce signatures, ask few questions about where those signatures come from, and let the volume do the rest.
Brass surprised the FBI by walking out his front door before dawn. He did not get far. If the Justice Department's recent pace holds, he may not be the last person in California's petition industry to find agents waiting outside.