Aguirre Sues Duffy, Filner Over Campaign Mailer

Lawyer Michael Aguirre filed a federal lawsuit against San Diego County Sheriff John Duffy and San Diego Councilman Bob Filner on Wednesday in connection with a campaign mailer in which Duffy attacked Aguirre during his unsuccessful council race last fall.

Charging that his constitutional rights were violated by Duffy’s use of his law enforcement position in a political campaign, Aguirre asked the U.S. District Court in San Diego for unspecified financial damages from the two local officeholders. Last month, Aguirre filed a $5-million civil claim against Duffy stemming from the same incident that occurred in last November’s bitter 8th District council race, won by Filner.

The federal suit, like the earlier civil claim, focuses on a letter sent out on Filner’s behalf shortly before the election in which Duffy sharply criticized Aguirre and endorsed Filner. Under a bold heading saying “A Strong Warning from Sheriff Duffy,” the letter, which carried a depiction of the sheriff’s official badge, described Aguirre as lacking integrity and being a “practitioner of the BIG LIE.”

The campaign letter, Aguirre argues, represented Duffy’s retaliation for Aguirre’s efforts to scuttle the sheriff’s appointment to the President’s Organized Crime Commission in the early 1980s. In December, 1983, Duffy resigned from the commission amid controversy after Aguirre helped to publicize the sheriff’s alleged ties to organized crime figures at La Costa.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said that because of the pending litigation, Duffy would have no comment on the suit.

Filner, however, reacted angrily to the lawsuit’s allegation that he conspired with Duffy to violate Aguirre’s civil rights.

“I’m outraged that someone who lost an election and happens to be an attorney can misuse the legal system in seeking to either undo an election or to put someone who won the election through all kinds of expense and time-consuming activity,” Filner said.

Aguirre said he realizes that some will dismiss his lawsuit “as just a case of sour grapes.” But the lawyer contended that his primary motivation in filing the suit was to “show that we can’t have law enforcement officers involving themselves and their offices in political races.”