Countywide : GOP Loses Bid for Reimbursement

A federal judge in Santa Ana has denied the California Republican Party’s request to be reimbursed more than $287,000 for costs and attorneys’ fees from a group of Latino voters who filed a civil rights suit against the Republicans.

In an order signed Monday, U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts denied the state GOP’s motion for attorneys’ fees and costs stemming from a lawsuit over the posting of uniformed guards at Santa Ana polling places in November, 1988. Letts’ order did not include the reasons for his ruling.

The California GOP was the only defendant in the lawsuit to be dismissed from the case and held blameless by a judge. The others, including the Orange County Republican Central Committee and Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), settled the case for a total of about $480,000 but admitted no wrongdoing.

The voters who filed suit contended that the Republicans conspired to scare Latinos away from polling places by hiring guards who carried signs that said “Non-Citizens Can’t Vote.”

The California Republican Party contended that it was entitled to $251,538 in attorneys’ fees and $35,674 in costs because the plaintiffs’ case against it was “frivolous.”