Orange County D.A. Ends Latino Voter Fraud Probe

SANTA ANA — After an exhaustive yearlong investigation that failed to substantiate allegations of widespread voter fraud, Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi on Friday officially ended the controversial criminal probe into the registration of noncitizen voters by a Latino rights organization.

After conducting 300 interviews and reviewing more than 33,000 documents, 40 investigators found evidence that only two Hermandad Mexicana Nacional staff members connected with the voter registration efforts may have broken the law.

But when prosecutors presented that evidence to the grand jury, they could not convince 12 of the 19 grand jurors--the number needed to return an indictment--that a state election law had been violated.

“We presented all the evidence we had to the grand jury,” Capizzi said, “but for reasons known only to the grand jury, they decided not to indict.”

In the end, Capizzi said, the two Hermandad employees signed up 632 people (out of Orange County’s 1.3 million registered voters) who were not yet eligible to register to vote.

Of those, 364 voted in races in Orange County.

All but 115 of the 364 who voted became naturalized citizens before the November 1996 election, and many more have since become citizens.

The allegations drew national attention after Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) defeated Republican Robert K. Dornan by 984 votes. After Sanchez’s victory, Dornan complained that voter fraud contributed to his defeat.

Secretary of State Bill Jones, whose staff participated in the investigation, said in a news release that he remained “appalled” that some noncitizens were registered to vote by Hermandad and that he was “puzzled” that the grand jury chose not to issue indictments.

“Whether the district attorney is able to prove intent or not, the fact remains that hundreds of individuals are illegally registered to vote,” Jones said. “And that is unacceptable.”

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Sanchez said the investigation backed up what she has said all along. “There wasn’t fraud. There wasn’t a conspiracy. And I would call on Mr. Dornan and the House Committee to drop it already.”

However, Sanchez said it was doubtful the House Oversight Committee would end its investigation of the election fraud allegations. “They want to keep it alive as long as they can continue to make me spend money,” said Sanchez, who estimated she has spent half a million dollars so far to uphold her position.

“They knew there was nothing there from the beginning, but they decided to pick on a Latina and a woman because they thought I was vulnerable.”

William M. Thomas (R-Bakersfield), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement, “Today’s announcement by [Capizzi’s office] confirms Congress’ concerns that illegal votes were cast and that noncitizens were registered to vote in Orange County.”

Dornan attorney Michael Schroeder, the state Republican Party chairman, said he still believes Hermandad was part of a conspiracy to steal the congressional seat.

“What [Capizzi] says was there were hundreds of people who voted illegally, but he’s not going to charge them because they didn’t know it was illegal. They were duped into it,” he said. “Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.”

Prosecutors defended the probe.

“This was easily the most complete and objective investigation anyone could ask for,” said Loren Duchesne, chief of Capizzi’s bureau of investigations.