Trial to start for Warren couple charged with election fraud that derailed gubernatorial campaigns
A trio of defendants scheduled to face trial starting Tuesday on allegations they committed election fraud and defrauded five Michigan gubernatorial hopefuls whose candidacies were derailed for the 2022 election.
Shaw Wilmoth, 38, and his wife, Jamie, 39, both of Warren, and Willie Reed, 40, of Florida, appeared Monday in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens for Judge James Maceroni to issue a legal ruling related to the trial after it appears plea negotiations recently broke off.
The defendants are accused of submitting up to 68,000 fake signatures that were rejected by the Michigan Secretary of State and resulted in the disqualification of GOP gubernatorial candidates Perry Johnson, who announced Monday he is running for governor, as well as former Detroit police chief James Craig, Donna Brandenburg, Michael Brown, and Michael Markey, along with judicial candidates Tricia Dare, John Cahalan and John Michael Malone for the 2022 election.
The trio operated three companies contracted by the candidates to collect and verify signatures in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars total from the candidates’ campaigns.
https://www.macombdaily.com/2026/01/26/trial-to-start-for-warren-couple-charged-with-election-fraud-that-derailed-gubernatorial-campaigns/