Quintana’s Fall May Be an Accident : Recall: Opponents seized on a fender-bender he left the scene of as an indication of personal irresponsibility.

A three-car fender-bender on Valley Boulevard last October probably did more damage to Stan Quintana’s political career than it did to his 1990 Lincoln Mark VII, his supporters say.

Quintana, a 13-year veteran of the City Council, battered by charges that he was personally “irresponsible,” was thrown out of office Tuesday in a special recall election. The vote was 591 to 365 for recall. About 45 votes remain uncounted, said City Clerk Kathy Gonzales.

A second vote was overwhelming--708 to 178--to replace Quintana by special election rather than by City Council appointment. The election to fill Quintana’s seat will probably be scheduled for May 21, city officials said.

Though the yearlong recall campaign had first been couched in terms of Quintana’s “corrupt practices” and “immoral spending,” his opponents quickly seized on the Oct. 12 traffic accident as an alleged indication of his personal irresponsibility.

Investigators say Quintana drove his Lincoln into the rear of a car stopped at a red light on Valley Boulevard at Del Mar Avenue in San Gabriel. That car hit a third vehicle, according to a sheriff’s deputy’s report.

Quintana, who authorities said left the scene before police arrived, at first denied having been involved and then fabricated a story to explain the damage to his car, police said. One man was reported injured in the accident. Quintana subsequently pleaded no contest to a charge of filing a false police report and was sentenced to pay $500 and perform two days of service with a Caltrans freeway cleanup crew.

“I think it was all the negative things that happened to him,” said Councilman Art Olmos, a Quintana ally. “The recall committee put out a lot of literature about the incident.”

Quintana, who had been recalled once before, in 1977, could not be reached for comment.

Recall committee members, who celebrated Tuesday night at their headquarters, said Quintana’s legal resistance to the recall, financed with city money, backfired.

“A lot of people felt he shouldn’t have used city money to pay for his own legal defense,” said John Gonzalez, chairman of the recall committee.

Quintana and two other councilmen voted to postpone the recall election, originally scheduled for November, then approved money to pay an attorney to set up a series of legal roadblocks to the recall effort. As of three weeks ago, the city’s tab amounted to $35,000.

Those efforts ultimately were unsuccessful. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jerold Kriegger ruled last Friday that there was no legal basis for Quintana’s complaint that petition-gatherers had engaged in improprieties.

Roger Lane Carrick, whose firm, Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, donated its services to the recall committee, said he would move to formally dismiss Quintana’s complaint.

About two dozen petition-gatherers said Tuesday night that they were angry the city had tried to subpoena them about their recall campaign activities.

“None of us was afraid to go” to testify, Ellen Lujan said. “It was just a matter of being harassed by the city with city money.”

No one would speculate Tuesday about who would run for Quintana’s seat. Recall supporters, including Councilman Raul Pardo, said they would probably unify behind a single candidate.

Quintana, along with Olmos and Councilman Albert Perez, had comprised a dominant majority on the council, which had been able to force through, among others, a controversial community development project and a trash-collecting franchise for an associate of Quintana.

Pardo said Quintana’s removal could signal a significant change in direction, with new city emphasis on gang-prevention efforts and with a redesigned community development program.

“If people thought that (community development) wasn’t being shoved down their throats, it could really improve the situation,” he said.

Olmos said Wednesday that he had “not the slightest idea” who he would support to replace Quintana.