Attorney General Liz Murrill's office secured a grand jury indictment that charged a Ville Platte alderwoman with 18 counts of voter fraud.
Christina Sam, an alderwoman in Ville Platte, is charged with 18 counts of registration and election fraud and 18 counts of filing and maintaining false public records, according to an announcement from the AG's office. The indictment followed several tumultuous years that saw Sam arrested in November 2022, later indicted in February 2023 and charges dropped later that year.
Sam is alleged to have had people agree to vote for her in a November 2022 election. Between May and November, she asked people to change their residential addresses to her district for the "sole purpose of voting for her, and not with the intention to reside there," the AG's office said.
"For the past two years, Alderwoman Sam has been accused of various ranges of voter fraud, as low as two counts to as high as 95 counts. Yesterday the AG's office settled on the number 18 for reasons that are unknown at this time," Roshell Jones, Sam's attorney, said in a statement.
The indictments follow a November 2023 lawsuit filed by Sam against Evangeline Parish District Attorney Trent Brignac, who helmed the state's case against the alderwoman.
In the lawsuit, Sam argued that Brignac violated her civil rights and forced her into confessing to voter fraud by questioning her in his office for four hours in November 2022.
The suit claims Brignac falsely imprisoned Sam, did not provide her a right to an attorney and forced her to sign a guilty plea under threat she could be jailed, according to the lawsuit.
Brignac was recused from her case in March 2023 by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals after a filing by Sam that argued Brignac could not be a material witness and a prosecutor in the case, a writ filing read.
Sam was elected in a runoff in 2022 after she finished the term of her late husband, Donald Sam. She was arrested within a few weeks after the November election but won a December runoff with 64% of the vote.
Jones maintains that the claims against Sam are unfounded.
Ville Platte Mayor Ryan Leday Williams and District Attorney Trent Brignac were not immediately available for comment.
Sam will be arraigned in the coming weeks, the announcement read.