Phone Lines Cut at Office of Teachers Union

ORANGE —  The telephone lines were found cut Sunday at the office of the Orange Unified School District teachers union, whose members walked precincts in opposition to an incumbent school board candidate.

Although Orange police said they had no motive or suspects in the case, a spokeswoman for the Orange Unified Education Assn. said members suspect that supporters of school board incumbent Joe J. Cherry were responsible. The union is opposing Cherry and is supporting two of his challengers in Tuesday’s election to the Orange Unified School District board.

Cherry, 57, a 16-year veteran of the school board who is seeking his fifth term, disavowed any knowledge of the incident when contacted at home late Sunday afternoon.

“This is the first I’ve heard about this,” Cherry said.

Police were notified of the downed phone lines and the allegation, but Sgt. John Richard said no evidence tying Cherry or his supporters to the incident was found.

Richard said the four telephone lines leading from a connector box in the back of the union headquarters building on 349 E. Grove St. were all found cleanly cut. Richard said the line cutting took place sometime between 4 p.m. Saturday, when union workers were last in the building, and 2 p.m. Sunday, when they returned.

“That’s about all we know so far,” Richard said.

Suzanne Vaugine, political action committee chair for the Orange Unified Education Assn., said the lines had been cut sometime during the day as union members walked precincts. She and several others returned to the group’s office across from Schaffer Park to phone voters and found the phones were dead.

“It is a really crummy, last-minute trick,” Vaugine said. “It essentially knocks us out until Monday morning, and we lose almost a whole day of phone time. It the worst kind of politics.”

Hazel Stover, president of the 1,100-member teachers’ union, said Sunday that while she was not accusing anyone of cutting the lines, she had no doubt that the incident was election-related.