Petitioner Accuses Zeanah of Battery

THOUSAND OAKS — She looked like just another soccer mom heading into Ralphs supermarket for a little Saturday afternoon shopping.

But when paid petitioner Jerry Jones tried to get Councilwoman Elois Zeanah to sign the petition aimed at recalling her, he quickly learned who he was dealing with.

Jones has filed a misdemeanor battery complaint with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, contending Zeanah snatched a clipboard away from him outside the Moorpark Road supermarket, slightly bruising his wrist.

Jones told sheriff’s deputies that Zeanah grabbed his left wrist, took the clipboard holding the recall petitions away from him and scribbled over a recall flier with a ballpoint pen, yelling “You are slandering me!”

“It was alleged that Mrs. Zeanah was upset and took a clipboard from the petitioner and scribbled something onto the petitions,” Capt. Mike Brown said. “He [Jones] said he suffered a mark on his arm as a result.”

Zeanah denies ever grabbing Jones. She said Jones thrust a recall flier in her face that contained misleading information about her, and she simply snatched it, wrote a large “X” across it, and handed it back.

“It got pretty heated,” Zeanah said, adding that it was she who told the petitioner to call the police. “He was trying to shove that paper on me. I just put an X through it and I said, ‘I don’t want it, but here’s your X.’

“There was no touch,” she added. “If there was a mark on his arm, it was self-inflicted or from someone else.”

Jones, 31, initially told police that he was not interested in seeking prosecution when he reported the incident Saturday. But he changed his mind Monday, notifying the Sheriff’s Department he wanted to press charges. He was re-interviewed, along with a witness who corroborated his testimony.

Jones could not be reached for comment.

Sgt. Harold Humphries said the department is also looking into a possible misdemeanor elections-code violation resulting from the incident, since it is illegal for anyone to interfere with the recall process by physically confronting a signature gatherer.

Confrontations with recall petition gatherers have generated a number of complaints since January, but none has led to criminal charges.

The Sheriff’s Department will now attempt to get a statement from Zeanah on the incident and forward the matter to the district attorney’s office, Humphries said. He said investigators would probably interview Zeanah today.

Cameron Maury, director of Progressive Campaigns, which was hired by the local group Yes! Remove Elois Zeanah, said he was concerned for the safety of his signature gatherers in Thousand Oaks.

“This was pretty outrageous,” Maury said. “Petitioning is a First Amendment right. It’s political expression. It is not something that warrants a violent response.”

Barbara Sponsler, spokeswoman for Yes! Remove Elois Zeanah, said the group was disgusted by Zeanah’s alleged response to the petitioner.

“I think it’s a pretty desperate, illegal act, and I think she needs to be held accountable,” Sponsler said. “She’s interfering with the democratic process.”

Zeanah argued that the entire incident was clearly an attempt by her political foes to besmirch her reputation as the recall intensifies.

“There’s nothing here,” she said. “They’re smearing my good name through slander, and now they’re even stooping this low.”

Meanwhile, a group defending Zeanah from the recall has begun circulating fliers implying that the two other council adversaries facing ouster--Mayor Judy Lazar and Councilman Andy Fox--have been corrupted by contributions from development interests.

Part of the four-page flier by the group Residents For Slow Growth depicts a large fist clenched around a wad of bills and states, “Of All The Things Money Can Buy, City Government Should Not Be One Of Them.”

Another part declares, “How To Spot A Corrupt Politician,” and goes on to list campaign contributions Fox and Lazar accepted from “developers and other special interests” in the 1994 election.

In a diagram showing a toilet shaped like the Civic Arts Plaza beside stacks of money, the flier states Fox and Lazar are bent on “flushing your money down the city’s toilet” by supporting a $75-million sewer plant upgrade proposed by city officials.

It also compares the votes of Lazar, Fox and Zeanah on several recent development issues, such as the approval of the Seventh-day Adventist shopping center in Newbury Park. And it accuses Fox and Lazar of misleading voters on such issues as Measure E, a growth-control measure proposed by Fox that voters approved last year, and the debt incurred by building the Civic Arts Plaza.

Dan Del Campo, chairman of Residents For Slow Growth, said the group is distributing the fliers door-to-door throughout the city. Most of the work is being done by volunteers, he said, but the group has begun paying some local college students to carry part of the load.

The fliers are intended to defend Zeanah by pointing out the records of her opponents, whom the group believe to be involved in the effort to oust her. Fox and Lazar have repeatedly denied being a part of the Zeanah recall.

“We had a little fun with it, in terms of how to spot a corrupt politician, but this is all based on public records,” Del Campo said. “I think it’s fair and true.

“How to spot a corrupt politician is not calling anyone corrupt,” he added. “It just lists the contributions and lets people decide for themselves.”

Fox saw the message of the fliers much differently. He resented any suggestion that he was corrupt, and he blamed Zeanah, whom he believes to be behind the fliers, for adding to the divisiveness plaguing Thousand Oaks politics.

“I’m not going to get involved in the continuing deterioration of the conduct of our elected officials,” Fox said. “Mrs. Zeanah is obviously paying for this, and she should be the one held accountable to the community.”

After learning from police about Zeanah’s alleged battery of a signature gatherer, Fox said Zeanah’s actions were beyond comment.

“Mrs. Zeanah is obviously having significant emotional problems right now,” Fox said. “For me to respond to this further would be to [add] to her problems.”

Zeanah and her husband, James, have financially supported Residents For Slow Growth, reports released last week show. But Zeanah said Monday she had no active part in the group’s latest fliers, other than providing some publicly obtainable information.