Hermandad’s Bid for Return of Seized Files Again Denied

For the second time this week, an Orange County court declined on Friday to order investigators to give back to Hermandad Mexicana Nacional copies or originals of certain material seized in a January search of the group’s Santa Ana headquarters.

Monday, the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana refused to order the return of membership lists taken in the search Jan. 14 by investigators for the district attorney’s office and the secretary of state.

Friday, Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg sidestepped ruling in a dispute over whether the nonprofit organization is entitled to get back hundreds of ongoing citizenship client files taken in the raid.

Hermandad lawyer Mark Rosen maintained in a court filing that Hermandad needs copies of the files to serve clients. “These are real, flesh-and-blood people in need of services,” Rosen told Froeberg. Some two dozen Hermandad supporters looked on in the small eighth-floor courtroom.

Lawyers for the district attorney and secretary of state said prosecutors would willingly copy files belonging to clients with open citizenship applications, but do not want to copy all 434 seized files because of the time and expense involved.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Wally Wade asked Hermandad officials to identify files that belong to people in the naturalization process. Wade said all the files seized belong to people who had registered to vote through Hermandad.

Any who are not yet citizens apparently would have registered illegally.

Rosen said his client would gladly assist in the process but could not identify which files are for open applications without examining each one. He argued that there is no good reason not to copy all of the files.

At the heart of the dispute is an effort by law enforcement officials to force Hermandad officials to testify under oath or state in writing that they know which files belong to citizen applicants, as opposed to those that remain open for other reasons.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Hermandad employees illegally registered hundreds of noncitizens, many of whom later voted in November’s election. An investigator stated that many of these people were clients of Hermandad when they were helped to register by the group, according to the search warrant affidavit.

Toward the end of the 60-minute hearing, Rosen said flatly: “I am not going to build their case for them . . . We shouldn’t have to provide incriminating evidence that could be used in a criminal trial.”

Finally, Froeberg told Rosen “the burden” is on Hermandad to identify which files need to be copied and find a cost-effective way to do it. He told the parties to work on the dispute together and return to his court in two weeks.