(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday recently announced that a western Pennsylvania campaign aide was sentenced to four to eight years in prison for forging signatures on nominating petitions for a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022. 

Sixty-six-year-old Kirk Rice of Cheswick was previously convicted by an Allegheny County jury of fifteen counts of identity theft, fifteen counts of forgery, two counts of perjury, one count of theft by deception and other related charges. 

An Allegheny County Judge sentenced Rice yesterday with his prison sentence to be followed by 93 months of probation. 

Rice is also required to pay $1,340 in restitution to the Campaign “Steve Irwin for Congress,” and he is prohibited from working for any county election department and circulating nominating petitions. 

According to trial testimony, Rice was paid $1,340 for collecting 437 signatures for Democratic candidate Steve Irwin for the 2022 primary.

It was determined that the signatures were falsified by Rice, including one of them allegedly by U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Bissoon.