By Arthur Jones 
, Multimedia Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media News
Nov. 1, 2024, 5 p.m. ·
A Hall County man charged with submitting fraudulent petitions supporting medical marijuana took the stand in the civil lawsuit attempting to block voting on the issue in Nebraska.
Attorneys opposed to putting the issue on the ballot asked petition circulator Michael Egbert if the organizers of the pro-cannabis campaign had in any way encouraged him to submit petitions that did not comply with state regulations. There are questions about whether potentially fraudulent signatures allowed the issue to get on the ballot.
Attorneys for the petition drive attempted to separate petition leadership from the actions of Egbert and the man who may have improperly notarized the documents.
Mark Songer, a private forensic document examiner for Robson Forensic, was brought on as an expert witness. Songer was brought in to examine the credibility of certain petition circulators’ signatures.
Plaintiff attorney Zach Viglianco asked Songer to walk the court through his process, as well as establish why he should be considered an expert.
Conversely, defense lawyer Sydney Hayes, through questions about the process, tried to prove that it should not be considered a full examination because of time spent on each of the signatures and complexity of the signatures.
Garrett Connely, a notary who notarized petitions for the medical cannabis initiatives, along with his attorney Molly Burton, were also called to testify. During examination, Connely was “advised to invoke his fifth amendment, against self-incrimination” on nearly all questions asked by the plaintiff attorney Justin Hall, requiring Judge Susan Strong to weigh in on each instance of pleading the fifth.
The questions involved Connely’s involvement in the ballot initiative campaign as a notary, as well as his text interactions with ballot initiative sponsor Christi Eggers.
The final day of the trial’s first phase is set for Monday.
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