Ald. Stone ally on trial for vote fraud

Four members of a West Rogers Park family testified Monday that Ald. Bernard Stone's (50th) ward superintendent Anish Eapen coaxed them to vote absentee, collected their ballots and then mailed them during the heated 2007 aldermanic race.

The Panchigars said Eapen came to their townhomes, at Devon and Hoyne, and watched them as they filled out the absentee ballot applications and forms for both the 2007 February general election and the run-offs in April later that year when Stone edged out challenger Naisy Dolar.

Hema Panchigar, who isn't even registered to vote, said she even got Eapen fill out her ballot. She signed the ballot as did all her relatives, but said, "I didn't mark anything."

Some of the Panchigars said they might have told Eapen it would be easier for them to vote absentee in 2007 since their octogenarian matriarch was ill. But they said they never marked the ballots indicating they'd be out of town during the elections.

"I don't know whose writing it is, but it's not mine," Hema Panchigar's brother-in-law Prabhat said, glancing at a portion of his ballot.

Absentee voters are required to vote in secret, seal envelopes themselves and either drop ballots off in person or mail them to the Chicago Board of Elections.

Cook County prosecutors maintain that Eapen and his co-defendant Armando Ramos, 36, improperly steered votes toward Stone.

The men's attorneys said the pair were not well versed in election law and were only taking orders from Stone and his veteran staff members.

"Let's not jump to the conclusion that he's a veteran cigar-chomping wheeler and dealer," Tom Breen said of his client Eapen, 39.

Attorney Rohit Sahgal added that Ramos is a "pawn, an innocent victim who thought he was doing his civic duty."

The bench trial before Judge Marcus Salone will resume on Nov. 16.