I-Team IDs man in viral video confrontation over fake petition signatures in SF's Tenderloin

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- We have finally been able to identify the man who took a swipe at the ABC7 Eyewitness News I-Team. We were questioning him about allegations that he paid the homeless to sign other people's names on petitions against the billionaire tax.

For our report last month, we had a hard time identifying that man. But after the story aired, we started getting messages from across the country.

I-Team's Dan Noyes was investigating a different story in San Francisco's Tenderloin when he saw a woman with petitions spread across the hood of a car. He approached and started taking pictures of the documents, when a man emerged from the passenger seat.

EXCLUSIVE: I-Team confronts couple paying SF homeless for fake signatures on petitions

MAN: "You're violating my privacy rights. Stay away from my car."

DAN NOYES: "If you can see this--"

MAN: "You violating my privacy rights."

DAN NOYES: "If you can see this on the street--"

MAN: "If you can see what on the street?"

DAN NOYES: "I can see those petitions right there on the street."

MAN: "So what? They right there. They're mine."

DAN NOYES: "They're yours?"

MAN: "Yeah. OK."

DAN NOYES: "Are you paying people? (man takes swing) Are you paying people?"

MAN: "I ain't paid nobody."

Neighborhood advocate JJ Smith had already captured video of the man and his partner -- paying a homeless couple $5 each to sign petitions in other people's names. Smith approached the man.

JJ SMITH: "You get $5 for doing it?"

MAN: "Mm-hmm. Can you write neatly?"

JJ SMITH: "Can I write neatly? Yeah."

After our confrontation, we tried to identify the man -- checked the license plate, ran facial recognition -- but could not confirm his name. Then, our story went viral, and we got a message from a signature gatherer living in the Midwest.

DAN NOYES: "You watched the story, and you recognized him?"

SIGNATURE GATHERER: "Yes, I recognized him, and I recognized him immediately."

He doesn't want to show his face or use his name; he also asked that we replace his voice with a computer-generated one. He says the signature gathering community is small, and that he has seen Phil Brunson on other jobs.

DAN NOYES: "When you saw our story, what was your reaction?"

SIGNATURE GATHERER: "I was upset. There's a lot of petitioners that are upset, because our job is to go out there legally and do it the right way. You never beat the system; it never happens. You just get caught. You might as well just do it the right way."

The signature gatherer pointed me to Philip Deshaun Brunson's social media, and a background check shows that he is 50 years old, living in Detroit, with a criminal history; he spent time in prison.

Brunson is again getting attention from law enforcement.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber is California's Chief Elections Officer. Her spokesperson says they have reviewed our video and that an investigation is ongoing: "We are continuing to work closely with law enforcement to hold those who abuse the initiative process accountable."

Political Consultant Brandon Castillo told the I-Team, "Like any business, Dan, there are bad actors, you know, and every industry has to take steps to root out bad actors. It's no different here."

Castillo has been running ballot measure campaigns for some 25 years -- he's not involved in either side of the billionaire tax issue. He says signature gathering can be so lucrative that people travel state to state. Online groups post where the jobs are and what they're paying. The anti-billionaire tax group paid $15 a signature.

"Some of these folks I've heard are making, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a year, or even in a short season, where they're collecting," he said. "Just do the math. If you stand in front of a store and you get 100 signatures at 10 bucks a pop. You know, that's a pretty good chunk of money."

Groups sponsoring ballot measures check the validity of signatures, and so do county election offices.

"When we receive the petition and we have the signatures," Jim Irizarry said as he walked us through the process for San Mateo County.

Every signature on a petition is digitized and then compared to that voter's signatures from past elections. Even in more popular races, with hundreds of thousands of ballots, each gets scanned by the human eye.

JIM IRIZARRY: "We will have a person look at every one of those signatures and compare them to the voter registration card or the history on that card for prior signatures that we've reviewed."

DAN NOYES: "Even when it's 300,000 signatures?"

JIM IRIZARRY: "Even when 300,000 signatures, we hire anywhere between 15 to 20 people just to do that, that are signature verifiers."

Irizarry tells us if they come upon a signature gatherer, or "petition circulator" as they're called, who appears to be cheating, they'll contact law enforcement.

"The greatest danger we have here is undermining the integrity of the electoral process," Irizarry said. "That's why it is a felony to do that, and also the circulator that is violating the law will go to jail for that."

The group called "Building a Better California" is sponsoring the anti-billionaire tax measure. A spokesperson says, because of the I-Team report, they "instructed our campaign's signature contractor to screen out any and all signatures submitted by Mr.Brunson." But so far, they haven't found any.

"We think it's likely that Mr.Brunsongot scared off by the fact that he was featured in the ABC7 story," the spokesperson said.

The group also said it has a zero-tolerance policy against any type of fraud. The San Francisco DA's Office confirms it has received a referral but won't comment on the status of the case.

I-Team has left messages on Brunson's social media, his email accounts and phone numbers, but received no response.