A one-time candidate for Carrollton’s mayor convicted of voter fraud is facing another criminal charge after mailing out fake jury summonses.
CARROLLTON, Texas — Zul Mohamed, a one-time mayoral candidate in Carrollton, faces new charges after investigators say he was behind a scheme to send fake jury duty summons postcards.
The postcards, directing recipients to appear for jury duty on Dec. 9, seemed genuine, according to Cheryl Eager, one of the recipients.
“It looked completely legit,” Eager said.
Authorities quickly honed in on Mohamed. His trial on voter fraud-related charges was set to start that same day.
“It wasn’t real difficult to put two and two together that at the very least Mr. Mohamed was gonna be a suspect,” said Denton County Sheriff Tracy Murphree.
The sheriff says his investigators collected 28 of the fraudulent summons postcards — some of which were sent to addresses in Dallas and Tarrant counties. Analysis found Mohamed’s fingerprints on three postcards sent to recipients in Fort Worth, Argyle and Justin, court records said.
“He doesn’t work in a post office, so that’s zero chance of that happening randomly,” Murphree said.
During a search of Mohamed’s residence, investigators discovered shredded card stock matching the materials used for the fake postcards, the sheriff said.
The 2020 investigation began after the county elections department told the sheriff’s office they were receiving suspicious requests for mail-in ballots to be sent to a P.O. Box in Lewisville, the sheriff said.
“We actually did an undercover operation where one of my officers posed as a clerk at the mail place,” Sheriff Murphee said. “We watched him pick them up.”
The sheriff says when they searched his house that time, they found Mohamed opening ballots as investigators entered the house.
The jury convicted him on 25 counts of possessing voters’ ballots without authorization and sentenced him to four years on those counts. They also found him guilty on 81 counts of requesting mail-in ballots without voters’ knowledge or authorization and sentenced him to 10 years of probation on those counts.
Murphree says whatever Mohamed’s intent was in sending the fake jury summons postcards it didn’t work. He is currently housed in the Johnson County jail, pending his transfer to a Texas prison. The fake jury postcards have now earned him an additional charge of impersonating a public servant.
The sheriff said Mohamed declined to speak to investigators and asked for a lawyer.
“While he’s in prison, I hope he takes advantage of that and finds a new line of work because he’s not very good at this,” the sheriff said.
