A second member of former U.S. Rep. Scott Taylor’s staff was indicted Monday on election fraud charges stemming from a petition scandal that erupted during the ex-congressman’s 2018 re-election campaign.
A grand jury charged Roberta Marciano with two felony counts of the crime. Each is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $2,500 fine. An arrest warrant also was issued, but it wasn’t known if it had been served yet.
Marciano was one of several members of Taylor’s Virginia Beach campaign staff who circulated petitions in the spring of 2018 as part of an effort to get a third candidate added to that year’s November ballot.
Taylor, a Republican, was running against Democrat Elaine Luria at the time. He ended up losing the election to her by a margin of 2 percent.
State Democrats believe Taylor was trying to siphon votes from Luria by getting Independent candidate Shaun Brown added to the highly competitive race. Brown ran as a Democrat against Taylor in 2016, but failed to win the party’s nomination in 2018. She needed 1,000 valid signatures to be listed as an independent candidate.
Separate investigations by The Virginian-Pilot, WHRO Public Media and state Democrats, however, showed that dozens of the signatures on the pages turned in by Taylor’s staff had been forged. At least four of the people named were dead.
Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald Caldwell was asked to look into the forgery allegations after they surfaced.
Last May, he secured a two-count indictment against Lauren Creekmore Peabody, who worked with Marciano in the Virginia Beach office.
Peabody pleaded guilty earlier this month to a single misdemeanor count of willful neglect of an election duty as part of a deal with prosecutors. She was fined $1,000, received a one-year suspended jail sentence and was ordered to remain on good behavior for a year.
Prosecutor John Beamer said after Peabody’s court hearing that the investigation was continuing and that more indictments were likely. He declined to say whether Taylor was still being investigated.
Taylor had planned to challenge U.S. Sen Mark Warner in this year’s election, but decided in January to instead run for his old U.S. House seat against Luria. But he’ll first have to beat Republican primary challenger Ben Loyola.
Jane Harper, 757-222-5097, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
