Pringle Says He’ll Continue to Back Baugh

Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) said Wednesday that he will stand by embattled Assemblyman Scott Baugh, the Huntington Beach Republican accused this week by the Orange County district attorney’s office in court papers of engaging in credit card fraud.

But Pringle said Republicans have contingency plans in case Baugh, who faces trial on four felony charges of perjury and campaign law violations, is convicted.

Baugh charged more than $15,000 on his credit cards last year in an allegedly fraudulent scheme with a close friend who owns a convenience market near the lawmaker’s Orange County home, prosecutors claim in a search warrant affidavit.

Pringle told reporters that, so long as Baugh is not convicted of a crime, he intends to continue to back Baugh as a candidate for reelection to the Assembly seat he won last year. Baugh’s election gave Pringle the vote he needed to capture the speakership.

Pringle said he would not “deem [Baugh] guilty until a jury does,” and suggested that although trial is scheduled for August, it could be put off until after the November election.

While the speaker said Republicans have contingency plans in case Baugh is convicted, he would not reveal them in detail.

Baugh has not been charged in the credit card case but faces four felony counts in connection with alleged wrongdoing in the November election. Baugh succeeded former Assemblywoman Doris Allen, a Cypress Republican who was recalled after she angered GOP colleagues by hatching a deal with the Democrats to seize the speakership last year.

Baugh contends that the latest round of trouble stems from the district attorney’s desire to strong-arm potential witnesses against him in the campaign case.

In the affidavit, prosecutors allege that Baugh allowed Huntington Beach store owner Adel Zeidan to use his credit cards to falsely obtain cash advances. Zeidan, who was a big donor to Baugh’s campaign last year, repaid Baugh’s credit card accounts before any interest charges accrued, according to court papers.