D.A. Begins Investigation of Magana : Citizenship: Officials are looking into the Valley council candidate’s claim that he did not know he was born in Mexico when he registered to vote in ’78.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has begun a preliminary investigation into whether Raymond J. Magana, a candidate for the Los Angeles City Council seat representing the northwestern San Fernando Valley, committed perjury when he falsely told voter registration officials he was born in California.

The Times reported last week that Magana certified in a 1978 voter registration affidavit that he was born in California, when actually he is a native of the state of Jalisco, Mexico.

Magana explained that he came to Los Angeles at age 10, after his mother’s death, and was raised by two older sisters who told him he was U.S.-born to protect him from possible discrimination and harassment as a Mexican immigrant.

Magana said he never intended to deceive registration officials. He discovered his true nationality, he said, while examining family records during a trip to Mexico several years after signing up to vote. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1989 and re-registered the following year, listing his correct birthplace.

A Sylmar attorney, Magana is among seven contenders battling to succeed Councilman Ernani Bernardi in the 7th District, a largely Latino area, in Tuesday’s primary election.

Magana, 37, has been a strong campaign fund-raiser and is considered a leading contender to become the Valley’s first Latino councilman.

Roger Gunson, head of the district attorney’s special investigations unit, said Wednesday that his office is reviewing information contained in The Times story as well as unspecified material from another source, which he declined to describe.

“We certainly have taken the material and are going to review it and find if it is a prosecutable case,” he said.

Gunson said the probe will focus on whether Magana intentionally misstated his birthplace on the 1978 affidavit.

Voters must certify they are U.S. citizens and over 18 years old at the time they register. Registration affidavits carry warnings that perjury is punishable by up to four years in state prison.

Gunson said that if his office decides there is no prosecutable evidence that Magana deliberately tried to hide his true birthplace, the matter will be dropped. The preliminary probe probably will not be completed before next week’s election, he said.

Magana could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday evening.

His campaign manager, Frank Negrete, said he is sure Magana will be cleared by the district attorney.

“Allegations are exactly that--allegations,” he said. “Ray has been very upfront about this and he certainly will be open with the D. A. I’m sure the D. A. will find there was no intent to commit perjury.”

Negrete repeated Magana’s assertion that Magana disclosed his real birthplace to federal immigration authorities when he applied for naturalization. Despite that disclosure, Negrete said, immigration officials did not block Magana’s bid for U.S. citizenship.

He added that Magana’s situation is far from unique, saying that many California residents of Mexican descent are told as children by their families that they are U.S.-born to protect them from discrimination.

“Amongst the Latino community, it’s much more common than we think. The whole stigma of being an immigrant can be very painful,” Negrete said.

He said he himself grew up thinking he was a California native until he applied for college financial aid, when his parents told him he really was born in Mexico City.

Negrete contended that one of Magana’s opponents fed the undisclosed information to the district attorney in an underhanded attempt to derail Magana’s candidacy in the last few days before the election.

“It’s unfortunate that people are trying to destroy somebody’s life . . . by these kinds of tactics,” he said.

Bob Stiens, campaign manager for rival candidate Lyle Hall, agreed that the district attorney got some information from an opponent but denied it was Hall.

“But I don’t think you can dismiss all of this as a political dirty trick,” Stiens said. “The guy did register to vote when he was legally prohibited from doing so.

“It’s not like he didn’t pay a jay-walking ticket or something.”

At a candidates’ forum Wednesday night, rival candidate Richard Alarcon attacked Magana over the citizenship controversy, saying:

“We have a candidate sitting up here . . . who has not been totally honest with this community. He was registered before he was a citizen of this country. . . . We can have different plans, but we can’t avoid the question of honesty.”

Magana replied that he is “proud to be a naturalized citizen and this issue shouldn’t be used against me.”