By Liz Adkins
InkFreeNews

Roger A. Nafziger

GOSHEN — A Goshen Community Schools’ board member has pled guilty to violating campaign finance laws during the November 2022 general election.

Roger A. Nafziger, 69, 319 S. Sixth St., Goshen, pled guilty on July 24 to filing a fraudulent report, a level 6 felony. A Class B misdemeanor for accepting a contribution made in another’s name will be dismissed.

If the court approves it, Nafziger’s plea agreement states he will receive a one-year sentence at the Elkhart County Correctional Complex, with the entirety of the sentence suspended on non-reporting probation.

Nafziger will be sentenced at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21, in Elkhart Superior Court Three.

Nafziger’s co-defendant, Jose Elizalde, pled guilty to the same charge on June 26. He will be sentenced at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7, in Elkhart Superior Court Three.

Elizalde’s plea states he will receive a one-year sentence at the Elkhart County Correctional Complex, with the entirety suspended on probation.

Cases for three additional co-defendants are still pending. Allan J. Kauffman and Mario Garber’s cases are currently scheduled for jury trial in October. Andrea M. Johnson’s case is set for a status conference on Aug. 21.

Nafziger, Garber, and Elizalde are all currently school board members. Johnson ran for a school board seat, but was not elected. Kauffman resigned from the board after charges were filed, but cited health reasons for his resignation.

In April 2023, Elkhart County’s chief deputy clerk submitted documentation for an investigation on various election and campaign finance violations to the Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office.

According to court documents, the documentation contained “extensive information relating to a scheme facilitated by Kauffman to accept donations from a variety of unnamed individuals for the purpose of paying for a mass mailing that advocated for the election of, and the defeat of, certain specific candidates for Goshen Community School Board in the November 2022 general election.”

Kauffman then made contributions to the campaign committees for Elizalde, Nafziger, Johnson, and Garber by placing said funds into his personal account, then writing checks to the individual candidates’ campaigns.

Kauffman made a large sum contribution in the amount of $1,177 on Oct. 31, 2022, to Elizalde’s campaign. These funds were not actually Kauffman’s since he collected monies “from numerous interested persons that wished to remain anonymous.”

The chief deputy clerk also examined several social media postings allegedly made by Kauffman, where he stated a “retired teacher” approached him out of concern about what would happen in the general election if candidates endorsed by a certain group were elected.

Kauffman expressed the intent was to collect money from the teacher’s friends and that the teacher wrote a check to Kauffman, who then wrote checks to each of the endorsed candidates’ campaigns. He claimed he was the sole contributor rather than the number of individuals who actually made contributions for the mailer.

Elizalde, Garber, Nafziger, and Johnson all filed CFA-11 reports indicating Kauffman was the sole contributor of a “large sum” donation while being aware that others had actually contributed the funds toward the large sum required for the mailer.

Each of the forms were allegedly fraudulent since they contained false information on the identity of a financial contributor to a campaign committee in a state election. The fact that a filing of a fraudulent report is a Level 6 felony is directly printed on this form.