Ortiz Claims Charges Tied to Vendetta by Key Witness

Former San Diego County Registrar Ray Ortiz, indicted on charges of theft and misappropriation of public funds, alleged Monday that the prosecution’s chief witness is a liar carrying out a vendetta against him for disclosing improper contracting practices.

Ortiz and his attorney made the claims to reporters as a preliminary hearing began in San Diego Municipal Court for Ortiz and two co-defendants charged last month in a 27-count indictment alleging that a county contract with a Los Angeles printing firm was manipulated to cover up thousands of dollars in unrelated expenses. The hearing is expected to last two weeks.

The witness, Lynn Kienle, is a sales representative for Jeffries Banknote Co., the firm that had contracts to print sample ballots for San Diego County in 1981 and from 1983 to 1986. He was granted immunity from prosecution for testimony against Ortiz, election consultant Lance Gough, and Maria Caldera, a longtime friend of the former registrar.

In appearances before the county grand jury and again Monday before Municipal Judge Nicholas Kasimatis, Kienle testified that Ortiz directed him to falsely bill the county under the printing contract for expenses associated with out-of-town trips by Ortiz and other employees of the registrar’s office, and for consulting work by Gough and Caldera that was never performed.

Repeatedly, Kienle said, he followed orders from Ortiz to disguise payments in Jeffries’ bills to the county, submitting invoices for purported work even though he did not understand the language Ortiz told him to use in the billings.

During a break in Kienle’s testimony, Ortiz charged that Kienle “lied quite a bit in court.”

“Obviously, Mr. Kienle has been schooled by his attorneys,” Ortiz said. He said that, for instance, Kienle, who testified that Gough and Caldera did no work for Jeffries despite being paid under the county printing contract, in fact hired Gough and Caldera and thoroughly discussed with them the duties they would perform.

As Ortiz nodded in agreement, defense attorney Merle Schneidewind said that Kienle was testifying against the former registrar out of anger over Ortiz’s role in terminating a county printing contract Jeffries and Kienle had in 1981.

“I think he’s got a vendetta against Ray,” Schneidewind said.

Schneidewind said that Ortiz detected “double-billing” and “padding” by Jeffries in its billings to the county and asked the Board of Supervisors to cancel the contract. Ortiz said his complaints led to an agreement with Jeffries that the contract would be terminated.

Jeffries resumed doing sample ballot printing work for the county when the contract was rebid in 1983, but Ortiz said the firm had to “low-ball” its bid to win, underbidding its competitors by $500,000 to obtain the job.

Kienle has “always brought that up about ‘how much you cost me’ by canceling that contract,” Schneidewind said.

Jeffries officials could not be reached for comment on the allegations. Deputy Dist. Atty. Douglas Gregg said that he would respond to the charges only if they were raised in the courtroom.

“It’s not the first time I’ve seen someone charged with a crime accuse somebody else,” Gregg said.

Ortiz is accused of manipulating Jeffries’ printing contract so that the county would end up paying for trips for him, his wife, his counterpart in Chicago, Gough, Caldera and registrar’s office employees.

The indictment also alleges that the county paid Caldera through Jeffries for work never performed and that, on one occasion, she passed a $1,275 payment along to Ortiz.

Ortiz, 52, resigned as registrar Sept. 1, while a criminal investigation of his office was pending.