Agran, Arraigned in N.Y., Calls Charges ‘Politically Motivated’

Larry Agran, the former mayor of Irvine and long-shot Democratic candidate for president, Monday blamed this state’s top Democratic leaders for his arrest last March when he was protesting his exclusion from a candidates’ debate.

Outside a criminal courtroom in the Bronx, where he was arraigned on charges of disturbing the peace and trespassing, Agran said he held New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and the city’s Mayor David Dinkins responsible for his “politically motivated” arrest.

“The fact of the matter is, who runs this state?” Agran told reporters. “Political accountability starts at the top.”

Although he is trying to get his name submitted to the Democratic National Convention for nomination, Agran said he still hoped to support Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton in the November election. But he added that he is angry with the presumptive nominee for not supporting his right to participate in the major Democratic events during the primaries.

“I am personally offended that Bill Clinton, who was a witness (to the arrest), never picked up a phone and called,” Agran said. “He should have stood up and said, ‘We are a party that does not discourage speech.’ ”

U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) also attended the arraignment for Agran because he said it was “preposterous” that a qualified presidential candidate would be arrested when he was requesting to be included in a debate.

“I think it’s pretty horrible what happened,” Wellstone told reporters outside the courtroom. “It’s embarrassing.”

Agran was arrested March 31 after he stood up in the audience at the start of a nationally televised debate shortly before the New York primary and asked that he be seated on the stage. Security guards quickly grabbed the Orange County Democrat and escorted him outside, where he was turned over to the police and arrested.

An aide to Agran said the candidate spent more than two hours handcuffed in the back seat of a police car. Agran’s coordinator for his New York state campaign, Arthur Goldstein, 62, was also arrested when he protested Agran’s removal from the Bronx theater.

A New York City criminal judge arraigned Agran and Goldstein on Monday. The judge, however, declined a request by Agran’s lawyers for an immediate trial on the charges because prosecutors said their chief witness, the arresting officer, was on vacation in Florida.

“This is not fair,” attorney Mark Denbeaux told the judge. “He stood up and asked to speak and for that, all of this happened.”

As Denbeaux spoke, Agran, wearing a gray suit and pale blue shirt, stood at attention before the judge in a hot and humid courtroom, packed with defendants waiting to be arraigned.

The judge ordered the lawyers in the Agran case to return to court Sept. 14 when they can submit motions. Agran’s attorneys said they are confident that the case will be dismissed.

Agran launched his long-shot campaign last fall and eventually qualified for the ballot in 35 states. But he never received more than 1% of the vote in any of the primary contests.

During his campaign he raised more than $240,000, however, and recently he was granted federal matching funds.

As a result, Agran flew his campaign staff to the convention from California and said he has launched an effort to qualify for nomination by the deadline at 6 p.m. today. Agran needs the signatures of 300 delegates on a petition to be considered for nomination.

The petition, however, would only be an application to the national party leaders, who could still decide against placing his name in nomination.

Monday, an Agran supporter passed the petition among delegates from Orange County and received just two signatures from nearly two dozen delegates. The candidate said he has at least three delegates committed to support him so far.