Leader of Prop. 187 Effort Files for Bankruptcy : Funds: Most of Ronald S. Prince’s debt is from the initiative. Because he’s seeking court relief, the campaign can’t raise funds for those costs.

Ronald S. Prince, the Proposition 187 campaign co-chairman, has filed for personal bankruptcy, with most of his $313,700 debt made up of expenses from the successful anti-illegal immigration initiative.

Among Prince’s unpaid creditors, according to the Chapter 7 petition filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, is former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Alan C. Nelson, who is listed as being owed $36,000. A campaign finance report filed earlier this year showed Nelson billed the campaign $26,000 for consulting services, which included co-authoring Proposition 187.

The largest single creditor reported in Prince’s bankruptcy petition is Yorba Linda campaign consultant Robert Kiley, who is owed $170,000.

Prince states in his petition that his assets--including a 1986 Buick, $200 cash and other personal items--total $3,950. Supported by his family and living rent free in a Tustin home, Prince said his income during the past three years was in the form of gifts totaling $3,500.

Not mentioned in the petition is a $32,000 lawsuit settlement he was awarded in March, 1993, as a result of a Bankruptcy Court dispute with a Canadian immigrant who was his friend and construction partner. The settlement agreement is contained in the files of the old Bankruptcy Court case.

Prince could not be reached for comment Thursday.

But his court action appeared to catch some by surprise.

Campaign treasurer Betty Presley said she did not know details about Prince’s bankruptcy or why he assumed much of the campaign’s debt.

“I don’t know anything and I kind of would just as soon not know,” Presley said. “I don’t know anything about his personal debts.”

Kiley, meanwhile, refused to comment.

Campaign finance experts said it is not unusual for a campaign official to take on a committee’s financial liability in order to secure contracts with vendors.

“It may very well be that at the time that he contracted for these services, he held himself to be personally liable as well,” said Jeanette Turvill, a spokeswoman for the California Fair Political Practices Commission. However, now that Prince is seeking relief through Bankruptcy Court, the campaign cannot raise funds to repay those debts, she said.

The last campaign finance report filed before the Nov. 8 election by the Proposition 187 campaign committee showed that it had raised $484,188 and spent $582,352, with an outstanding debt of $297,691.

Early on in the Proposition 187 campaign, finance reports listed Prince as the donor of a $20,000 loan to the campaign. However, caught up in a legal battle with his former attorney who was seeking payment for a $9,600 legal bill, Prince told an Orange County Superior Court judge last month that he had no assets and that the $20,000 loan was actually made by his father, Downey businessman Leland Prince.

The younger Prince’s petition to settle his debts through asset liquidation was filed Monday, a day before he was due back in Superior Court to show proof that the $20,000 campaign loan was made by his father.

The attorney who received a judgment against Prince, William Baker of Santa Ana, had argued in Superior Court last month that if Prince could lend money to the Proposition 187 campaign, then he had the means to pay his legal bill, which has since gone up from $9,600 to $18,000.

In the bankruptcy petition, Prince stated he owes his father $20,000 for a “personal loan” made this year, plus another $14,000 that the elder Prince lent to his son in 1992.

In addition to Nelson, Kiley and Leland Prince, other creditors included in the bankruptcy petition were:

* American Petition Consultants of Rancho Cordova, the firm that gathered signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. The amount due is $28,500.

* Freeway Commerce Center of Tustin, which is owed $600 in rent for the campaign headquarters.

* James Maryea of Westminster, who is owed $25,000. Maryea handled the direct mail and campaign literature for Proposition 187.

* John Lunetta of Corona, who now holds the $18,000 legal bill that Prince owed Baker, his former attorney.

* United Parcel Service, which is owed $1,600.

The bankruptcy record states that Prince, an unemployed accountant, is supported by his family. His petition stated that the house he lives in is owned by a Tustin couple, but he holds a $48,633 note on the house secured by a deed of trust. The owner “has exchanged free rent in property for note . . . (Prince) has received no cash,” according to the petition.

Prince also stated in the court record that he paid $300 to a paralegal firm in Huntington Beach for assistance in preparing the bankruptcy petition.

Times staff writer Martin Miller contributed to this report.