Voting-Bias Suit Against County Killed : Elections: June 2 primaries in three supervisors’ districts will proceed as planned after federal judge rejects contentions that the rights of minorities had been violated.

A federal judge threw out a voting rights lawsuit against the county of San Diego Monday, ruling that the Latinos, blacks and Asians who filed it “introduced no evidence suggesting that the rights of San Diego minority citizens have been violated.”

U.S. District Judge John S. Rhoades’ decision assures that the June 2 primary elections in three county supervisors’ districts will proceed as planned, and that the 1991 reapportionment of the five supervisorial districts will stand, at least until attorneys for the minority plaintiffs appeal the ruling.

County officials expressed satisfaction at Rhoades’ decision not to hold a trial over their reapportionment decision or delay the June 2 election in Districts 1, 2 and 3 as requested by Chicano Federation attorney Michael Aguirre.

Supervisor Brian Bilbray, part of the three-member majority of supervisors who voted for the new boundaries, said the board had drawn “reasonable lines that reflect the law and reflect reality, which seldom go hand-in-hand. But this time they did.”

But Aguirre, referring to the judge’s ruling, said that “the African-Americans are as injured by the boundaries of the district that was adopted (as Latinos) because both are submerged in overwhelmingly non-minority voting areas.”

Aguirre said the three plaintiffs would appeal Rhoades’ ruling and suggested that the U.S. Department of Justice is considering stepping into the case, possibly as an intervenor in future legal action. A Department of Justice official in Washington, who Aguirre said is reviewing the case, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Rhoades presided over a similar lawsuit against the San Diego City Council filed by the Chicano Federation in 1988, which was settled last year with the creation of a council district that is 61.5% Latino and more than 80% minority.

The county supervisors adopted the new district lines in a 3-2 vote Oct. 2, as required after the federal census is taken each decade. Supervisors Bilbray, Leon Williams and George Bailey voted for the plan. Supervisors John MacDonald and Susan Golding opposed it, saying some areas were unnecessarily split.

The board’s plan gives small population majorities to a combination of minority groups in two districts. In Bilbray’s South Bay district, whites represent 43.6% of the population. In Williams’ Southeastern San Diego 4th District, whites make up 49.6% of the population.

The lawsuit hinged on the plaintiffs’ demand that the supervisors create one district in which minorities constitute 73.84% of the population and 69.16% of the voting-age adults, in order to maximize their chances of electing a minority representative. They suggested that Williams’ 4th District be the home of this “super-minority majority.”

But legal precedent required them to prove that the three minority groups are a cohesive voting bloc with similar interests. Rhoades ruled that analyses of voting patterns did not show such a pattern.

“Plaintiffs have not put forth evidence supporting their argument that African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans form a cohesive voting bloc,” he wrote in a 34-page decision. “The plaintiffs have suggested that a voting block can be demonstrated in the results of two specific elections, but have admitted that their current understanding of these elections at best is inconclusive.”

Nor could the Chicano Federation show intentional discrimination against minorities, Rhoades ruled.

During oral arguments Monday, Rhoades also appeared persuaded by county lawyers’ arguments that five different black groups testified against the Chicano Federation plan at supervisors’ reapportionment hearings.

County attorney John McDermott told reporters that blacks consider themselves better off under the current arrangement, which has resulted in the election of a Williams, who is black, than they would under a reapportionment plan that would be heavily weighted toward Latinos.

Blacks were very “suspicious” that the Chicano Federation plan “was really aimed at electing an Hispanic, which (Latinos) knew they could not do with their own voting power,” McDermott said.

But Aguirre claimed that Williams orchestrated the black testimony at the supervisors’ hearings to preserve a district pattern allowing himself and future candidates palatable to the white plurality to win election.

“No question about it, there was a manipulation by Leon Williams through his position at the Board of Supervisors to give the appearance of conflict” between blacks and Latinos, Aguirre contended. Williams denied the charge.

Aguirre warned that continued inattention to the “social disintegration” in black communities could lead to riots such as the ones in Los Angeles last month.