Former SLO County candidate will face trial for felony election fraud charges
Former Arroyo Grande mayoral candidate Gaea Powell will face trial for charges of election and voter fraud, San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Judge Timothy Covello ruled on the second day of her preliminary hearing Thursday.
The hearing was unique in that it marked the first time Powell, who is representing herself in her case, questioned witnesses or entered evidence in court, which oftentimes elicited visible frustration from the prosecution and instruction of proper legal etiquette from the judge as she learned the ropes of courtroom procedure.
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office charged Powell with nine election fraud counts — eight of them felonies — on June 24. She pleaded not guilty to all the charges in July.
Powell is currently running to be the county’s top elections official and is suing her opponent, current County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano, amid her pending court case.
Powell’s preliminary hearing — which was the first time evidence was presented to the public — lasted all day Wednesday and into Thursday morning. The purpose of the hearing was for the judge to determine whether sufficient evidence existed to warrant a trial.
Covello found Powell could be held to answer on all counts. She will be arraigned for trial on April 13.
Powell was charged with three counts of fraudulently attempting to vote, two counts of perjury by declaration, two counts of false filing declaration of candidacy, one count of voter registration violation — all felonies — and one misdemeanor count of failing to send campaign finance reports more than $2,000.
The majority of the charges relate to Powell’s residence during her campaigns for mayor in 2022 and 2024. The DA’s Office alleges that Powell lived at an address outside the Arroyo Grande city limits and different from the address at which she was registered to vote and run for office — a violation of the California Elections Code.
The law requires candidates to live at the address they are registered to vote at, which must be within the jurisdiction they seek to represent. In this case, that is the city limits of Arroyo Grande.
However, Powell said her review of the local elections code with the city clerk ahead of filing for candidacy led her to believe her residency was within the bounds of the law.
“It’s not that Ms. Powell doesn’t know the law, it’s that Ms. Powell, for whatever reason, chooses to believe the law doesn’t apply to her,” Deputy District Attorney Ben Blumenthal said during his closing arguments. “Those are two vastly and wildly different things.”
He also said Powell lied to the California Fair Political Practices Commission regarding her campaign donations. Powell denied the claim.
The Tribune first reported on the DA’s Office investigation into Powell’s residency in October 2024, a month before the election.
At the time, she told The Tribune she rented two residences in the Arroyo Grande area: a house on Heritage Lane — located outside the city limits where she said she lived full-time — and a condominium on James Way — inside the city limits where she rented a room but said she was not residing. Powell said she spent some time at the condo during her first campaign for mayor in 2022 but never lived there full-time.
While testifying during Wednesday’s hearing, Powell remained unwavering in her opinion that she did not break the law by renting two residences.
“I’m not trying to deceive anyone,” she said during her testimony, the last of the day.
Powell represented herself during Wednesday’s preliminary hearing. She denied accepting the services of a public defender and opted to act as her own attorney in the case in September.
At numerous times throughout the hearing, the judge had to instruct Powell to stop adding her own testimony while questioning witnesses, and the prosecution objected to a large number of Powell’s questions. Her motions to subpoena Cano and District Attorney Dan Dow were denied.
Powell told The Tribune she found it “interesting” to learn the ins and outs of the courtroom.
“My questioning was constrained by the rules governing preliminary hearings, though I did attempt to push where I felt appropriate,” she said. “I’ll acknowledge I was fatigued and, at times, spoke out of turn. The court’s frustration was clear.”
At one point during the hearing, there seemed to be some confusion as to what exactly Powell was accused of.
“The charge is not that I, that I, registered illegally, or that I broke a residency law, that I have committed any kind of legal violation when it comes to my residency,” Powell said during the cross-examination of one of the witnesses.
Blumenthal paused, then responded: “Those are exactly the allegations that are being leveled against Ms. Powell.”
Witness claimed Powell rented condo as an office, not residence
Powell reiterated on Wednesday that she rented two residences: the Heritage Lane house located outside the city limits and the James Way condominium inside the city limits.
Powell rented the condo on James Way in an informal agreement with her former employer, David Marquis, who took the stand on Wednesday.
He testified that he gave Powell permission to access the property anytime he wasn’t there after he bought the unit in fall of 2022.
The two never signed any kind of rental or lease agreement and Powell never paid him rent, but she was permitted to sleep in the guest bedroom when Marquis was staying at his other residence in San Clemente, he said.
Powell called this an “inconsistency” with his previous statements to The Tribune in October 2024, when he said he rented a room to Powell as a part of a “long-term arrangement.”
However, the only belongings of Powell’s that he ever found in the condo was a box of personal items in the bedroom that he moved into the garage, he said Wednesday.
Regardless of whether it was legal for Powell to maintain two residences, her landlord at Heritage Lane testified that she never lived in the condo.
“You expressed to me, Gaea, that the condo was being used an office,” Carolyn Moffatt said on the witness stand Wednesday.
Moffatt testified that to the best of her knowledge, Gaea lived full-time at the ADU Moffatt rented to her on Heritage Lane, and did not spend time at the condo.
She added that renting an office “has nothing to do with where you live.”
Despite this testimony, Powell held that she did not break the law.
Since 2024, Powell’s argument has been that she sought and received confirmation from the city on multiple occasions that there are no rules in the City’s Municipal Code requiring candidates with multiple residences to reside at their address inside the city limits for a certain amount of time in order to file candidacy papers and run for office.
On July 5, 2023, Powell emailed Arroyo Grande City Clerk Jessica Matson a “hypothetical question,” Blumenthal said. He read the email exchange in court Wednesday:
“’Hi Jessica, I am trying to encourage more people to run for local office, maybe you can help answer a question,’” Powell’s email to Matson read. “’If somebody has two residences in AG, one inside city limits and the other in the rural area of AG, are there any restrictions on how much time is spent at the residence in the city in order to be eligible to run for office in the AG?’”
Matson responded: “There are currently no residency restrictions related to time spent at one residence within the city limits versus at another outside city limits.”
“A candidate does need to be a registered voter within the city limits,” Matson also wrote, pursuant to section 201 of the California Elections Code.
On the witness stand Wednesday, Matson said when Powell was seeking office in 2022, she confirmed to Matson over email that she resided within the city limits of Arroyo Grande.
Powell tried to question Matson about the city municipal code three times, but Blumenthal objected to each question on the grounds that she wasn’t charged with violating municipal code, but rather state election law. Covello agreed and warned her not to continue her line of questioning.
In her testimony at the close of the daylong hearing, Powell held steadily that she “followed every instruction” when running for mayor.
“There was nothing nefarious,” she said.
Powell relied on prosecution to call key witness — he never appeared
After Blumenthal had called all the prosecution’s witnesses on Wednesday, Powell said she missed out on the opportunity to question a key witness — DA Investigator Nick Coughlin, who led the investigation into Powell — because Blumenthal did not call him to the stand.
She said in court that she was “counting” on Blumenthal calling Coughlin to the stand and asked for the preliminary hearing to be continued so that she could do so herself. Covello denied the request.
“Let me cut that off right now: It’s not reasonable for you to rely on your opposing party for anything,” he said. “You’re representing yourself. So when a preliminary hearing is set, you need to subpoena all the witnesses you believe you need to make your case.”
Powell later told The Tribune that the prosecution’s refusal to provide a witness list to her in advance was “the most significant issue” with the hearing.
“While I understand they are not legally required to do so, the lack of transparency is concerning,” she said.
She said much of her preparation for the hearing focused on cross-examining Coughlin and “by not calling him, the prosecution effectively avoided scrutiny of the foundation of their case at the preliminary stage,” she said.
If she was able to question him, Powell believes she would have been able to prove that there was no probable cause for the charges against her.
Ultimately, Powell made the “deliberate strategic decision” not to file a motion to dismiss or suppress the case, she told The Tribune.
“I am prepared to proceed to trial, where I will have the opportunity to fully examine the witnesses against me — including those the prosecution chose not to present,” she said.
She said that representing herself has been “invaluable,” as its allowed her to review the discovery in full, but that she may or may not continue to be her own lawyer moving forward.
“At this point, I am evaluating next steps, including whether to request appointed counsel or continue representing myself, and whether to proceed with a bench or jury trial,” she said.
“Bottom line: I am doing everything I can to demonstrate that I have not committed a crime,” Powell said. “I have nothing to hide and nothing to lose in continuing to challenge these allegations and the process by which they were brought.”
Witness ‘in a similar situation’ advised of her rights not to testify
The only witness Powell called to the stand herself was her friend and another former candidate Marlea Harmon.
Harmon was called to testify about a candidate filing meeting she attended with Powell and Matson in 2024.
At that time, Harmon was also running for local office — City Council — and had two residences, one inside the city limits and one outside the city limits, she said. Both women were asking Matson for clarification on the residency rules.
But before she was called to the stand, Covello tried to warn Powell that she may be asking her friend to potentially incriminate herself under oath by admitting to the same crimes that Powell is accused of, which could lead to “potentially even charges.” He called for a five-minute recess before allowing her to testify.
“I need to take a moment,” Covello said. “This is an unusual situation, and I need to make sure I’m protecting everyone’s rights.”
Once Harmon was called to the stand, Covello tried to inform her of her right to remain silent and retain counsel before testifying.
However, Harmon did not seem to understand the risk.
“I hear what you’re telling me, but I don’t understand why,” she said when Covello informed of her rights. She said she did not believe anything she said would incriminate herself and that the evidence against Powell has been “twisted.”
“I don’t know how I can be any more clear,” Covello said.
There was some back and forth between Harmon and the judge, but she ultimately testified to the fact that Matson told both herself and Powell they were “totally still eligible to run,” despite their double residencies.
Harmon had moved to a home outside of the city limits before the election, and while she still owned the property within the city limits, she “didn’t sleep there” during the election, she said.
However, Powell’s line of questioning was quickly ended by Blumenthal objecting repeatedly on the basis of relevance.
“What residency law did I violate that constitutes fraud?” Powell asked in an effort to explain the relevance of her questions. “That’s the core.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2026 at 10:57 AM.
