Ballot Trick Didn’t Break Federal Law

The U. S. attorney’s office has absolved a San Diego developer of violating federal statutes in a political dirty trick during an Escondido annexation election.

The office turned over its evidence in the mail-fraud investigation to the San Diego County district attorney Thursday.

Assistant U. S. Atty. Charles Gorder said the case, which involved publication of a look-alike edition of the Lehner Valley News, did not qualify for federal prosecution because it did not cause property losses.

Edition Was a Fake

Before the June annexation vote, a bogus edition of the News was mailed to Lehner Valley residences indicating that annexation opponents had changed their minds and favored a merger with the city of Escondido. The postage meter used on the phony edition was traced by annexation opponents to Thunderboats Unlimited, an organization headed by John C. Daley, president of the San Diego-based Daley Corp.

Daley Corp., a major development firm with large property holdings in the Lehner Valley area northeast of Escondido, and former county grand jury foreman Ed C. Malone, who owns property in Lehner Valley, were the chief backers of the annexation drive. Neither Daley officials nor Malone returned a reporter’s phone calls Thursday.

A marathon telephone campaign by annexation opponents notifying voters of the bogus mailer succeeded, and the annexation was turned down at the polls.

Resident Not Surprised

Wanda Cavanaugh, leader of the anti-annexation drive, commented that she was not surprised at the failure of federal officials to pursue mail-fraud charges against the annexation proponents. She said development interests sought to exploit the rural residential valley against residents’ wishes.

Blanche Nelson, another Lehner Valley resident active in the anti-annexation fight, acknowledged being bitter at the outcome.

“What happens depends on who does it,” Nelson said. “If I had done a thing like that, I would have been hung by my thumbs.”

Gorder said that a U. S. Supreme Court ruling about two years ago narrowed the scope of federal mail-fraud prosecution to cases in which specific property losses had occurred. As Lehner Valley residents suffered no losses because of the bogus edition of the local newsletter, he said, federal law does not apply.

Other Areas Weighed, Too

During the three-month investigation by postal inspectors and the U. S. attorney’s office, possible violations of federal election statutes also were checked, Corder said, but federal laws apply only to federal offices and candidates, not to local election issues.

Linda Miller, a spokeswoman for county Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller, said the Lehner Valley case had been assigned to Allen Preckel, chief of the special-investigations unit.