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Former Prince George's County Council candidate Jerry Mathis is headed for a January trial for election-fraud charges, after his defense failed to convince a county judge that Mathis was singled out in a state-level conspiracy.

Richard Allen Moore II, Mathis' defense attorney, submitted six motions to dismiss the case against his client and one to change the location, but Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge Michael R. Pearson denied all of them Dec. 21 during a motions hearing, paving the way for a trial scheduled to begin Jan. 12.

Mathis, 57, a Fort Washington resident and activist, member of the Prince George's Community College Board of Trustees and a real estate agent, is charged with two counts, failing to put the correct "paid-for" line on campaign literature and making a false campaign finance report, misdemeanor charges that carry up to one year in jail and a $25,000 fine each.

After the Dec. 21 hearing, Mathis said he is ready for trial.

"We will win. No doubt about that," Mathis said. "We would have liked to have gotten rid of it today, but we were fully prepared [for the denials]."

The charges stem from a campaign flier Mathis distributed during August early voting that implied he and other allies had the support of Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Dist. 26) of Fort Washington. Mathis was not endorsed by the state senator. Mathis lost his bid for District 8 council seat to Obie Patterson (D-Dist. 8) of Fort Washington.

The sample ballot was listed as being paid for by a group called "Citizens for Change." The group was not registered with the state board of elections, and a man named Charles Summers of Fort Washington was listed as treasurer.

When Muse objected to the ballot, along with Angela Alsobrooks, then still a candidate for county state's attorney before winning the seat, the attorney general investigated. Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler charged Mathis in October.

Mathis and his attorneys say that because the ballot was attributed to Summers, a private citizen, Mathis should not have been charged because private citizens are allowed to distribute campaign material.

In court papers, prosecutors say Mathis actually created, paid to print and distributed the fliers, making the authority line misleading. Mathis could have listed the ballot to his own campaign committee to comply with the law.

Moore said he thought the best opportunity to get the case dismissed came in a motion that argued the Prince George's County state's attorney's office, which is currently prosecuting the case, is not the correct office to be dealing with the matter.

Moore argued the Maryland State Prosecutor, an independent body that investigates election violations and corruption, should be in charge of the case.

"My research was clear that the election violations are within the purview of the state prosecutor's office," Moore said.

But Pearson denied the motion, saying there is nothing that mandates the independent office handle such cases.

Moore said he thought the judge was "playing a semantic game."

"[Pearson] kind of turned it around and said I haven't found anything that says they can't [prosecute the case], but it doesn't say that they can," Moore said.

In another denied motion, Moore argued that election law provides a series of regulations for people involved in elections, but it never clearly includes candidates under those regulations. Instead, Moore argued, the law mentions candidates separately. So, as a candidate, Mathis wasn't technically a person, the argument went.

"It talks about a person cannot give money, you can't give this, you can't do that. It says that a person can't. But there's one incidence that says that a candidate can't," Moore said. "I was just trying to show the judge that they were very clear about delineating who can do what and trying to apply it to our situation," Moore said.

Assistant Attorney General Jason Abbott, who is prosecuting the case, disagreed with Moore's logic.

"A person does include candidates. I can't think of how it would make any sense for it not to be that way," Abbott said.

In a different denied motion to dismiss the case, Moore argued that Gansler, the attorney general, singled out Mathis for prosecution for political reasons.

The motion claims Gansler has 2014 gubernatorial aspirations and multiple sample ballots, like the Citizens for Change ballot, will lessen Gansler's ability to win election.

"This is politically motivated, and there are things going on behind the scenes that we don't see right now," Mathis said.

Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for Gansler's office, denied those claims.

"The attorney general's office does not file charges for political reasons. We file charges when we have evidence the law has been broken," Guillory said Dec. 21.

Assistant Attorney General Franklyn Musgrave, who is prosecuting the case along with Abbott, said the conspiracy theory is unfounded.

"The state attorney general has no interest in this case other than the pursuit of justice," Musgrave said.

Mathis said he's after the same thing.

"We feel that justice was not served here today," Mathis said. "But it will be served."

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