Judge Clears State GOP Committee in Poll Intimidation Suit

SANTA ANA —  A federal judge on Monday absolved the California Republican State Central Committee from any civil liability in the decision by local Republicans to place uniformed security guards at several polling places in the 72nd Assembly District on election day in November, 1988.

U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts said it would require “piling inference upon inference” to argue that the state committee should be held accountable for the actions of local Republicans when state party officials were not aware until afterward of what was going on.

The judge granted the state committee’s request that it be dropped from a lawsuit filed by six Latino voters who claim that poll guards at 20 Santa Ana precincts were an attempt to intimidate minority voters. Democrats blame the guards for Republican Curt Pringle’s narrow victory in the state Assembly race against Christian (Rick) Thierbach.

Pringle’s election committee and the Orange County Republican Party Central Committee are the primary targets of the lawsuit, which is scheduled for trial in Judge Letts’ courtroom Jan. 16.

The Republicans have said the security guards were hired because party officials feared Democrats would try to tip the election by busing in illegal voters. However, the incident sparked a barrage of criticism of local Republicans and the county’s party chairman, Thomas A. Fuentes.

Democrats have called for investigations by both the district attorney’s office and the state attorney general. Both offices have declined to prosecute anyone connected with the incident.

In federal court Monday, Joseph Remcho, lawyer for the six Latino plaintiffs, argued that the state Republican Party was involved in what happened in two ways: Local Republican leader Marsha Gilchrist was involved in the placing of the guards, and she is also on the State Central Committee’s executive board. Remcho also argued that there is a “symbiotic” relationship between the state and county committees for the party.

“You have to have accountability somewhere,” Remcho told the court.

But the state committee’s attorney, John Mueller, countered that the 58 county central committees within the party act as “satellites” that are independent of the state committee.

While Letts appeared to play devil’s advocate during presentations by both sides, he told lawyers for the plaintiffs: “You can’t be legally liable for things you can’t prevent.”

After the ruling, Mueller said: “We should never have been sued in the first place. After a year, the plaintiffs have yet to come up with any evidence that we were in any way involved.”

Another defendant, county voter registrar Donald Tanney, has settled rather than bear the expense of lengthy litigation. The county agreed to agreed to pay the plaintiffs $20,000 and to implement various changes in the training procedures for precinct workers aimed at preventing similar incidents.