Voter Group Aided in Fraud, Probe Alleges

Authorities believe that employees of a Latino rights group “willfully and unlawfully” helped 227 noncitizens register to vote, in some cases illegally filling out the forms themselves, court documents show.

Hermandad Mexicana Nacional representatives also may have conspired to run an illegal lottery to encourage people to register, the records show. The winner--a noncitizen--was allegedly shortchanged when given $12,000 instead of the advertised prize, a 1996 Chevrolet Camaro valued between $18,000 and $20,000.

The allegations surfaced Tuesday when a judge unsealed the sworn statement of an Orange County district attorney’s investigator who was granted permission to lead a search of Hermandad’s Santa Ana office on Jan. 14.

The investigator said he believed a search would reveal that Hermandad employees committed felony violations of the elections code by assisting or registering unqualified people to vote, aided in casting fraudulent ballots, induced people to commit perjury on voter registration documents and conspired to run an illegal lottery. Some noncitizens also may have broken the law, he said.

A spokesman for Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi declined on Tuesday to say what was found, only that the investigation is continuing.

Hermandad officials, including an attorney for Nativo V. Lopez, executive director of Hermandad’s Santa Ana office, said they had not seen the search warrant affidavit and could not comment. In the past they have said that an internal investigation found no impropriety on their part.

They also have acknowledged that some overeager people who took citizenship classes at Hermandad may have registered and cast ballots after passing a citizenship test but before being sworn in by a judge.

State law makes it unlawful for a noncitizen to vote or register to vote.

The 39-page affidavit, filed in Orange County Municipal Court last month, reveals for the first time the scope of an official investigation into alleged voter fraud that focuses on Hermandad. The district attorney launched the probe in October, shortly before former Republican Rep. Robert K. Dornan went to the secretary of state with allegations of voter fraud after narrowly losing his seat in the Nov. 5 election.

“It appears that Hermandad Mexicana Nacional assisted hundreds of persons to register to vote,” the court papers read. “At least 227 of those registered to vote were not qualified by virtue of not yet being citizens of the United States.”

Secretary of State Bill Jones said Tuesday that “based on information contained in our search warrant, it is clear that an alarming number of noncitizens registered to vote for the November election. As our aggressive investigation continues, I believe the facts will speak for themselves.”

The search warrant affidavit was used to win a judge’s permission for the district attorney’s office and the secretary of state to search the Santa Ana offices of Hermandad on Jan. 14. Investigators seized employee records, computers, citizenship files, bank records and other documents during that daylong search.

The affidavit was sealed under court order prior to the search, but was unsealed by Judge James M. Brooks Tuesday after The Times filed a motion in Municipal Court.

Investigators quote five confidential informants. Two specifically asked authorities to conceal their identities because they feared retaliation from Hermandad, according to the affidavit.

One informant told investigators that the “voter registration effort was being coordinated by” people at Hermandad “known to him as Rosa Ibarra and Jose Refugio Mejia.” Ibarra is the wife of executive director Lopez, who won a seat on the Santa Ana Unified School District board in November.

Ibarra has served as Hermandad’s treasurer and program director. Mejia is a board member who has also worked as office coordinator.

All five informants were identified as noncitizens who were registered to vote by Hermandad employees. They took classes at Hermandad and were noncitizens when they registered to vote through Hermandad, the document shows. One became a citizen just prior to the election and re-registered legally after surrendering an improper registration form on Oct. 10.

Two of the remaining four voted fraudulently, according to the affidavit. All five blamed Hermandad for encouraging them to register even though they had not been sworn in.

Two of the informants, who attended INS interviews a month apart, said that every person leaving the interviews was signed up by Hermandad employees to vote, the court papers claim. Two of the informants also said they signed registration forms that had been filled out for them by Hermandad employees even though the employees did not sign the form as required by law.

Lopez, Ibarra and Mejia declined comment or referred reporters to Hermandad attorney Mark S. Rosen, who said he had not seen the documents. Ed Munoz, an attorney for Lopez, also declined to comment, saying he had not seen the court papers.

By matching U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service files with a list of voters registered on cards issued to Hermandad by the Orange County Registrar of Voters, investigators determined that at least 227 noncitizens registered to vote.

The Times reported Saturday that the names of 374 people who registered to vote on cards issued to Hermandad matched the names of people Hermandad said were still applying for citizenship with the aid of the agency, and that 220 of them cast ballots in the Nov. 5 election.

Hermandad registered 1,322 persons and 759 of them voted, according to the court filing, which does not say how many noncitizens may have voted.

The court document notes that Mejia was issued 2,000 registration cards in 1996, Ibarra was issued 375 cards in 1994 and Lopez was issued 1,200 in 1996. The first complaint citing Hermandad as a source for the registration of noncitizens was received by the district attorney’s office in mid-October, according to the court papers.

Hermandad also has been the target of voter fraud allegations by Dornan who lost in November by 984 votes to Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove).

Among his allegations, Dornan first raised the issue of whether Hermandad broke the law by offering free $10 tickets in a lottery to residents who could show proof they had registered to vote or had voted in elections in 1996.

Under state law, the lottery is illegal. Under federal law, it is a crime to offer anything of value in exchange for registering to vote or voting.

Last December, Hermandad officials said they stopped using the raffle in April as an inducement for registering or voting because they had realized there might be legal problems.

Times staff writer Dexter Filkins contributed to this report.