Ex-East Hampton GOP Chair Sentenced for Election Forgery
The ex-East Hampton Town Republican Committee chairman was sentenced last week to 45 days in Suffolk County jail after admitting to forging signatures on election nominating petitions three years ago.
Suffolk County Judge Karen Kerr sentenced Amos Goodman on November 22 to serve three consecutive 15-day sentences and pay a $1,000 fine after he pleaded guilty in May to a misdemeanor count of violating New York State election law and disorderly conduct as a violation. He had faced up to seven years in prison if convicted of the top felony charges against him before he struck a plea deal in which more serious counts were dropped.
Outgoing Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini said at the time of the 38-year-old Springs man’s arrest in 2018 that the “defendants corrupted the democratic process and violated the public’s trust” in a “brazen scheme to get preferred candidates on the November 2018 ballot by any means necessary.”
Prosecutors have said Goodman and three codefendants were involved in the forgery of more than 50 signatures for Green Party judicial candidates, an Independence Party candidate for East Hampton Town Council and a Republican Party candidate for East Hampton Town Council.
Before becoming head of East Hampton Republicans, Goodman ran unsuccessfully on the party’s ticket in 2015 against Democrat Bridget Fleming for the Suffolk County Legislature. In October of 2018, Goodman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of aggravated unlicensed driving in East Hampton Town Justice Court, and was fined $500. He resigned as GOP chair after his forgery arrest.
-With T. E. McMorrow