Kings Owner Indicted in S.F. Election Case

Sacramento Kings owner Gregg Lukenbill and four others have been charged with an undisclosed misdemeanor in the campaign to defeat a proposal for a new baseball stadium for the San Francisco Giants last November.

They were indicted Monday by a San Francisco grand jury, but details of the charges will remain secret until they turn themselves in for booking. Their attorneys said that will happen Wednesday.

The grand jury investigation began after Mayor Art Agnos accused Lukenbill of illegally concealing the source of donations to the campaign to defeat Proposition P, a proposal to build a China Basin ballpark as the new home of the Giants. It failed by fewer than 2,000 votes in the Nov. 7 election.

Lukenbill, a sports developer, is seeking a major league baseball team for Sacramento. Agnos accused him of trying to steal the Giants, who want out of Candlestick Park and said they would leave San Francisco if the ballot measure failed.

Agnos, in a statement issued by his office while he was in Washington, said in response to the indictments: “The most important thing is to protect the integrity of the process, whether it is a presidential election or a local election. Voters have a right to know if their votes were unfairly or illegally influenced.”