DA charges CUSD board member and candidate with felony election fraud for lying about her address.

A current member of the Board of Trustees of Carmel Unified School District and candidate for Area 5 has been charged by the Monterey County District Attorney for lying about her residence when she registered to vote and when she filed her declaration of candidacy. 

The charges come in the midst of CUSD's transition to district-based elections. Anne-Marie Rosen first ran and was elected to an at-large seat in 2020. At that time, there were no districts—all CUSD board members were elected at-large. The address she was registered to vote at at that time later became part of Area 4, based on a map adopted in 2022 by the board. 

A later schedule of elections adopted by the board means Area 4 is not up for election this year. Rosen changed her voter registration to an address in Area 5—which is up for re-election in 2024—and filed her candidacy papers for that Area 5 address. 

District Attorney investigators searched Rosen's two Carmel Valley addresses on Wednesday, Oct. 2 and in charges filed on Oct. 4, allege Rosen committed election fraud by lying about her address. While she owns both homes, they say she does not live in the Area 5 home, where she is running for office, and in actuality lives in the Area 4 home.

"I am not guilty," Rosen says. "This was done specifically to damage me, before I can get re-elected into a new position."

Rosen is running against a current colleague on the board, Jason Remynse, who was appointed to fill a vacancy mid-term. At the time, the appointment was at-large; this is the first time Area 5 is up for election as CUSD phases in the districting process. 

Rosen owns three homes in CUSD: Two are in Area 4 and one is in Area 5. She has said that she rents all three out to family members and splits her time among all three, and lawfully declared her residency and voter registration at one of those addresses. 

There are no charges connected to her current office—Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon notes that she lawfully resides within CUSD, which she was elected four years ago to represent at-large. 

The charges filed on Oct. 4 do not impact her ability to appear on the Nov. 5 ballot, and voters can still vote for Rosen. Brannon says if she moves to Area 5, she could lawfully take office. (Rosen maintains that she already resides in Area 5.)

"The people are going to choose who they wish to choose," Brannon says. "The District Attorney can't affect her ability to run."

The DA filed four counts against Rosen. Two counts are for violation of Election Code—one count for declaring one's candidacy if any part of it is made falsely, another for false voter registration. (Both of those charges are known as "wobblers," meaning they can be either misdemeanors or felonies, depending on the circumstances.) The other two counts are felony charges for perjuring herself in association with lying about her address in relation to the two Election Code violations.

Rosen's term on the CUSD board has been marred by controversy. She has increasingly been set apart from fellow board members—she voted against an expensive payout upon the resignation of former superintendent Ted Knight and continued to defend his leadership long after her colleagues had forgotten about him. She was critical of the board's process for selecting a new superintendent, and cast the lone dissenting vote when Sharon Ofek was appointed. 

Rosen is set to appear for an arraignment on Friday, Oct. 25 in Monterey County Superior Court.