Embattled Lodi City Councilman Shakir Khan reportedly resigns after arrest on voter fraud charges

Feb. 16—Lodi City Councilman Shakir Khan has reportedly resigned following his arrest on voter fraud charges on Thursday morning.

Just before 5 p.m. on Thursday, the City of Lodi posted a video of Mayor Mikey Hothi explaining the circumstances of Khan's resignation.

"We became aware of Shak Khan's arrest this morning, and I had the opportunity to speak with him here at the county jail," Hothi said. "I asked for his resignation, effective immediately, and he agreed to resign. The city is fully cooperating with the investigation. We want to thank the Sheriff's Office and everyone involved, ensuring a thorough process."

Khan's attorney Allen Sawyer disputed that his client intends to resign.

"Mr. Khan is represented by an attorney and I am bothered that a governmental agency would attempt to facilitate a resignation at this time. Mr. Khan is not resigning," Sawyer said.

Khan was arrested by San Joaquin County Sheriff's deputies at his home in the city's Heritage District Thursday morning on suspicion of causing, procuring or allowing false voter registration of self or another person; submitting fraudulent registration to the Secretary of State; submitting a fraudulent candidacy petition; aiding or abetting the commission of fraud at any election; subscription of fictitious names to nomination petitions, false nomination/declaration of candidacy; fraudulently casting votes; and procuring/assisting/counseling/advising another not qualified to vote.

He is being held without bail at the San Joaquin County Jail.

During a Thursday afternoon press conference, Sheriff Pat Withrow said the latest investigation came to his department's attention during an existing investigation into Khan's arrest for illegal gambling, money laundering, tax evasion and Employment Development Department fraud in 2019, as well as from county residents who were concerned about the elections process.

"Our investigation uncovered that Shakir Khan has attempted to undermine, manipulate and violate one of our most fundamental rights in this country," Withrow said. "And that right is a free and fair election."

Capt. Art Harty said that during the 2019 investigation into Khan, deputies served a search warrant on the councilman's Heritage District home to determine if he was storing equipment related to his illegal gambling operation, but instead found 41 sealed and completed mail-in ballots.

Harty said the amount of ballots seemed odd, but because the department does not investigate elections, it was unsure if any crime was being committed.

"Because there were recent changes to election law, and people could turn in ballots on behalf of another, either at a ballot drop box or at the Registrar of Voters office, we decided we'll just take photographs, leave them in place and leave the elections proceed unimpeded," he said.

Harty said investigators later learned Khan was running for Lodi City Council. Khan ultimately won the election with 837 votes. Opponents Ramon Yepez, JoAnne Mounce and Nati Bowman received 555 votes, 473 votes and 363 votes, respectively.

As the 2022 mid-term elections approached, Harty said, a citizen who was inspecting the voter rolls on behalf of a relative contacted investigators and said they found some irregularities.

"There was a lot of weird things we found in the voter rolls," Harty said. "But when she pointed out a particular address in Lodi's District 4, that's when it clicked in our heads: 'Wait, that's Shakir Khan's address. That's the 41 ballots we saw.'"

Harty said 70 names on on the voter rolls were registered to Khan's address, email or cellular phone.

The California Secretary of State's office did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation's findings.

Last year, Khan violated an agreement with the court that he would not leave the state while under investigation for the 2019 charges, but posted pictures of trips to Washington, DC and New York on his social media pages.

He was ultimately ordered to wear an ankle monitor and told if he left the state again, he could face additional charges.

Harty said deputies initiated a compliance check after the ankle monitor was in place, and searched for additional gambling equipment. Instead, Harty said, deputies found more ballots that were unopened.

Investigators obtained Khan's nomination papers, which include the list of residents in the district that support a person's candidacy.

Harty said a name that stuck out on the list of signatures was that of Khan's brother, who lives in Pakistan and was in that country at the time he supposedly signed the paperwork.

Deputies then saw a "common" name on the list that was misspelled, Harty said, and when compared to the resident's signature in the Department of Motor Vehicles database, it was determined the two signatures did not match.

There were several instances of mismatched signatures on the document, Harty said, so deputies canvassed District 4 to ask residents if they had signed anything for Khan.

Harty presented bodycam footage of several District 4 residents, all of whom are members of the Pakistani community, telling investigators that Khan presented completed ballots to them and told them to sign them, or that he took their names and entered his own phone number or email address on voter registration forms.

Harty said Khan learned that deputies were canvassing the district, and posted a video to his social media pages in his native language of Urdu.

In the video, Khan instructed constituents to tell deputies they had completed and signed ballots on their own if contacted.

"It's infuriating to watch this," Withrow said. "You see these good people, you hear their children in the background, they're here to make a better life for themselves and their families, and here's a member of their own community taking advantage of them. It just goes against everything we stand for in this country."

Sawyer said he was disappointed with how the investigation unfolded in Lodi's Pakistani community.

He said the federal government's treatment of the Pakistani community after 9/11, particularly in Lodi when some residents were arrested for alleged terrorist activities, has not endeared law enforcement to those who were questioned during the investigation.

"Years after people voted, they have people showing up at their front door in police uniforms asking them to verify their signatures," Sawyer said. "It would have been better to have the Secretary of State, who is more familiar with elections law to conduct this investigation."

Sawyer added there is no evidence of voter intimidation, and that telling a resident who to vote for is a core piece of any candidate's campaign.

"We need to let the presumption of innocence continue," he said. "Any call to resign (from Lodi City Council) is premature. We need to let the facts in this case play out."

The City of Lodi said in a media statement Thursday afternoon that it is cooperating with the Sheriff's investigation.

"The city has no first-hand information regarding the specific allegations, as this case is being investigated by the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office," the statement read. "The city takes challenges to electoral integrity seriously and is consulting with legal counsel to determine our next steps, The San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters and the California Secretary of State are responsible for conducting fair, impartial, accurate, secure, and transparent federal, state and local elections."

Khan's arrest comes just a day after the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office announced that the councilman would appear in court next Tuesday to be held to answer prior charges of illegal gambling, money laundering, tax evasion and Employment Development Department fraud.

According to the 45-page complaint filed against Khan, he had been allowing illegal gambling to occur at the American Smokers Club, located at 2620 E. Waterloo Road in Stockton, between Feb. 14, 2018 and Sept. 7, 2020.

Zakir Khan had been permitting illegal gambling activities at the One Stop Smoke Shop, located at 2525 E. Fremont St. in Stockton, between Feb. 4 and Oct. 28, 2020, according to the complaint.

Shakir Khan also allegedly provided false statements to the EDD regarding unemployment compensation for himself and several other people in 2020.

In all, Shakir Khan was charged with 63 felony counts, including 41 counts for money laundering totaling millions of dollars, four counts of filing false tax returns and five counts of possessing illegal gambling machines.

— — View Thursday's press conference at: https://fb.watch/iKAf2ORAqz/

View Shakir Khan's arrest at: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1338406406951581

View Lodi Mayor Mikey Hothi's statement on Shakir's resignation at: https://fb.watch/iKApxWfEIH/