Former Candidate for Plainfield Mayor Pleads Guilty to Forgery
By Insider NJ |
April 30, 2026, 12:17 pm | in
News
Attorney General Jennifer Davenport today announced that a former mayoral candidate in Plainfield has entered a guilty plea after he attempted to file numerous fraudulent voter registration applications in connection with a June 2021 city election.
Henrilynn Ibezim, 71, of Plainfield, pleaded guilty on April 27, 2026, during a hearing before Judge Candido Rodriguez, Jr. in New Jersey Superior Court in Union County. The defendant admitted to count five of the indictment against him, charging him with one count of third-degree forgery.
Under the terms of his plea agreement with the Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA), the State agreed to dismiss the remaining counts in the indictment and to not prosecute the defendant for any other disclosed criminal violations arising out of his conduct during the Democratic primary for mayor in June 2021. Prosecutors will recommend that Ibezim be sentenced to a term of probation to be set by the court at sentencing, which is scheduled for June 18, 2026.
“My office is determined to ensure elections are fair and that their outcomes are determined by the will of the voters,” said Attorney General Davenport. “It is crucial to our system of government that those who engage in illegal and bad faith conduct during elections be held accountable. Failing to do so opens the door to a loss of public confidence in the democratic process.”
As set forth in publicly filed documents in the case, Ibezim allegedly brought a garbage bag containing approximately 1,000 falsified voter registration applications to an Elizabeth post office, intending to mail the documents to the Union County Commissioner of Registration.
As alleged, Ibezim created and attempted to submit false voter registration applications containing the personal identifying information of individuals without their authorization. Many of the applications had the handwriting of only three or four writers. The applications did not state, as required, that they were completed by anyone other than the voter for whom the application was purportedly submitted.
The plea was accepted by Deputy Attorney General Kelly Amorim for the OPIA Corruption Bureau.
Defense Attorney:
Elizabeth Janszky, Assistant Deputy Public Defender with the Union County Office of the Public Defender
