Baugh’s Attorneys to Seek to Have Case Thrown Out
Defense lawyers for Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) said Thursday that they will file motions to have a new campaign fraud complaint against Baugh dismissed or to have the case transferred to the attorney general’s office.
If they fail, Baugh’s defense team will consider a motion to move the trial to the county’s West Court.
The shift from the county courthouse in Santa Ana to Westminster would “put this case on Mr. Baugh’s turf,” said Baugh lawyer Ron Brower.
Baugh, 34, was to be arraigned Thursday on five felony perjury charges and 13 misdemeanor violations of the Political Reform Act in Central Municipal Court.
But at his request, the hearing was postponed until Nov. 8--three days after the general election.
A Superior Court judge last month dismissed 17 of the 22 counts against Baugh brought in March in a grand jury indictment, saying prosecutors withheld evidence about the truthfulness of a key witness, Baugh’s former campaign treasurer, Dan Traxler.
The district attorney refiled the case Wednesday in Municipal Court, an alternative to seeking a new indictment or appealing the dismissal.
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