Mailer Can Use Allegation of Candidate Misconduct

Claims by a political rival that Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. James M. Brooks was nearly fired for misuse of county property in 1980 will appear in a pamphlet to be mailed to voters next month because of a state Court of Appeal decision Monday.

The allegation was made by Paul S. Robbins, a deputy city prosecutor in Long Beach, who is a candidate for the same Orange County Municipal Court judgeship as Brooks.

A judge ordered Robbins’ claim deleted last week as a violation of state law, but that decision was appealed. The 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana delayed implementation of the order Monday and scheduled a hearing for Thursday.

County Registrar of Voters Alvin E. Olson said that publication cannot be delayed for the 175,000 sample ballots in the Brooks-Robbins race without holding up printing of pamphlets for all county voters.

Mailing of sample ballots, which contain statements by candidates for office, cannot be delayed beyond early October because applications for absentee ballots will be mailed at the same time, Olson said.

Brooks won the first skirmish in the dispute recently when Superior Court Judge Harmon G. Scoville ruled that state law prohibits candidates for judicial office from attacking each other in statements distributed by the county.

The appellate court set aside Scoville’s order Monday, indicating that the justices wanted to hear Robbins’ contention that the statute is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech and unfair because it does not apply to non-judicial candidates.

Ronald K. Ramstead, Brooks’ attorney, said he felt that justice would be “frustrated.”

“There’s another statute that says no false or misleading statements can be included,” Ramstead said. “Judge Scoville ruled that judicial candidates can’t make any statements about their opponents, so my client never had a hearing on whether the statements were false, which they are.”

Scoville also had ordered a part of Brooks’ statement deleted because it inaccurately stated the results of a poll of county lawyers on the abilities of the two candidates. Those statements will not be printed, Olson said.

At issue in Robbins’ statement are the circumstances of Brooks’ endorsement of a political candidate in 1980.

Robbins claimed that Orange County Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks “threatened to fire” Brooks because a mailer containing the endorsement appeared to be on official stationery from the district attorney’s office.

Both candidates have filed sworn statements from Hicks.