Rights Official Won’t Testify in Bias Lawsuit

U.S. Civil Rights Commission Chairman William Allen has withdrawn plans to testify for the defense in a discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of Latino voters against Los Angeles County.

Allen’s decision to drop plans to appear as a paid county witness came Friday after a commission attorney said he considered the proposed testimony a violation of the panel’s ethics policy. Other commission members voted not to alter the conflict-of-interest regulations to permit Allen to testify.

“I told (the county) at the outset I would not do it (if the conflict code was upheld),” Allen said. “So I will not do the work.”

Not Taking Sides, He Says

Allen insisted that he was not taking sides in the discrimination case, saying that his testimony would have involved the same kind of expert information on voting patterns that he routinely provides as a political science professor at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont.

The U.S. Justice Department, American Civil Liberties Union and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in separate lawsuits have accused the county of gerrymandering the boundaries of supervisorial districts to dilute the voting power of the county’s sizable Hispanic population.