Write-In Foes Target Judge Facing Charges

The judge is under house arrest and has an electronic bracelet strapped to his ankle. He can’t go out for a quart of milk without court approval, let alone hit the campaign trail.

Talk radio hosts crusading against his reelection have gone so far as to broadcast from in front of his home in Turtle Rock, an exclusive neighborhood in Irvine.

As a candidate, Orange County Superior Court Judge Ronald C. Kline has some baggage: Authorities have charged him with child molestation and downloading kiddie porn from the Internet.

Kline’s reelection bid is one of the more peculiar spectacles ever seen in the usually staid realm of California judicial campaigns. Perhaps the most surprising element is this: He stands an excellent chance of winning.

After all, he’s the only candidate on the ballot.

The judge surrendered to federal authorities on Nov. 9 on charges that he had downloaded photographs of children engaged in sex acts. Until then, Kline had enjoyed an impeccable reputation and seemed certain to win easy reelection on March 5. Just two days before his arrest, the filing deadline for judicial candidates passed. As expected, no one filed to run against Kline.

The sight of a jurist accused of shameful acts coasting, however uncomfortably, to likely reelection has produced varying degrees of anguish, embarrassment and denial in Orange County’s legal community. Those feelings were sharpened on Jan. 10, when prosecutors filed new charges against Kline, alleging that he molested a boy 25 years ago.

Since the allegations became public, a set of challengers has emerged to contest Kline’s reelection. They are urging voters to write in their names.

To win a new six-year term on the bench, Kline, 61, must collect a majority of the votes cast. That is considered likely, given that he is the only candidate listed. If he gets less than half the total vote, he would face a runoff in November with whoever finishes second.

“I give Kline a very good chance . . . better than 50-50,” said Mark Petracca, chair of the political science department at UC Irvine. “If you’re an incumbent, you’re hard to beat, whether you’re under indictment or not.”

Kline’s troubles began last summer, when Julie Posey, head of a Colorado-based Internet watchdog group, forwarded to local detectives a tip that Kline was downloading kiddie porn from Internet sites. The tip came from an anonymous computer hacker who electronically broke into the judge’s computer and copied its contents.

Federal agents and local police searched computers in Kline’s Irvine home and in his chambers in the Orange County courthouse. They unearthed more than 100 pornographic images from Web sites with names such as “boynudist” and “boypedia,” according to court records. Authorities say they also found a computer diary in which the judge detailed his sexual attraction to children.

Last month, local prosecutors added their own charges, alleging that Kline sexually abused a young neighbor at least four times between 1976 and 1978. Kline was a private attorney at the time. The victim came forward after hearing of the judge’s arrest.

Through his lawyer, Kline has denied the allegations against him. He is scheduled to stand trial on the pornography charges beginning June 4. No trial date has been set for the molestation case.

Even after the first charges were filed, 21 of Kline’s colleagues on the bench signed his nominating papers for reelection at a bustling “signing party” in the courthouse lunchroom in Santa Ana. Kline’s lawyer, Paul S. Meyer, collected additional signatures from private attorneys.

Several judges have since tried to distance themselves from Kline.

Even though Kline’s name appeared in bold capital letters on the top of his nomination papers, the judges said they overlooked it while signing on behalf of about 30 colleagues running for new terms.

One judge compared it to the time-honored office ritual of signing a card for a colleague.

“A lot of people would sign the birthday card . . . without recognizing your name,” said Judge Robert D. Monarch. “They would wish you a happy birthday.”

When state prosecutors added the child-molestation charges, support for Kline appeared to fall off sharply and the number of write-in challengers grew. There are now 11.

At debates and public appearances, the challengers have expressed few quibbles with one another but have had no hesitation about taking aim at Kline. One candidate, former county prosecutor Gay Sandoval, wheels around placards proclaiming of herself: “She Prosecuted Child Molesters.”

“It’s unfortunate that Osama bin Laden isn’t the one on the ballot, but Kline isn’t too far behind,” said another write-in candidate, John Adams, a Dana Point attorney.

With less than three weeks until the election, the write-in candidates are waging enthusiastic, if lightly funded, campaigns. Most have launched Web sites. One is cranking out recorded phone messages. Another has ordered 30,000 pencils bearing his name to be handed out to voters on election day.

Political experts figure it costs roughly $350,000 to wage a write-in race of this kind. So far, Sandoval leads the write-in field in campaign contributions, according to county spending reports. As of mid-January, she had raised $4,125, most of it borrowed from her husband.

The write-in candidates have been receiving help from John Kobylt and Ken Shiampou, the popular talk show duo on KFI-AM radio who have been railing against Kline for weeks. Last month, the pair set up a makeshift studio outside the judge’s home, drawing a crowd of skateboarders and mothers pushing strollers.

This week, the “John and Ken Show” broadcast graphic excerpts from the diary that the hacker claims he took from Kline’s computer. On their Web site, the pair warned listeners that the journal “kinda reads like the Anne Frank diary, with less Nazis and more . . . young boys.”

In arguing that he should be confined to his home while awaiting trial, federal prosecutors told a U.S. magistrate that the judge poses a threat to children. They cited the diary, in which Kline allegedly wrote of ogling boys playing baseball in Little League games.

Magistrate Arthur Nakazato barred Kline from logging on to the Internet or having contact with anyone who works with children.He is allowed to leave home only to visit his attorney or a physician.

As his rivals battle for name recognition, Kline remains at home on paid leave, drawing his $136,244 salary.

The judge is not raising or spending any money on his campaign. He has no friends or colleagues stumping on his behalf. And he declines to talk to reporters about his election chances.

“I haven’t talked to him, but I can’t imagine that he wants to tap dance right now for the job,” said Frank Barbaro, chairman of the county’s Democratic Party and a friend of Kline’s.

Like many Orange County attorneys, Barbaro was shocked last fall when Kline surrendered to federal authorities.

Kline had forged tight bonds with many lawyers during his two decades in civil practice. Barbaro recalled his own trepidation whenever Kline opposed him in court, not least because of the Texas native’s way of charming jurors with his Southern drawl. Immensely knowledgeable about courtroom law, Kline nevertheless projected a down-to-earth image.

After his appointment to the bench in 1995, Kline earned a reputation as a stickler for courtroom decorum and for keeping unwieldy civil cases on track. He rarely allowed long-winded lawyers to digress and was quick to snap at witnesses he felt were evading questions.

Today, there is little evidence that Kline ever worked in the Santa Ana courthouse. His nameplate over his courtroom door is gone. The 541 cases on his docket have been transferred to another judge. No one who worked alongside Kline wants to talk about him. When a reporter tracked down his clerk, now working in another courtroom, she scurried out a back door.

If he wins reelection, Kline’s future as a judge will rest on the outcome of the criminal charges against him. The pornography case is likely to hinge on the credibility of the computer hacker who tapped into the judge’s computer. Kline’s attorneys have suggested that the hacker could have doctored Kline’s files and downloaded the pornography himself.

If Kline is convicted of a felony, California law calls for the state’s Commission on Judicial Performance to suspend him without pay. An appeals court could overturn a conviction, in which case Kline would be reinstated with back pay. But if his appeals were rejected, he would be removed permanently from the bench.

The criminal charges and upcoming election have put Orange County’s close-knit legal community on the defensive. At a political dinner last week hosted by the Newport Beach Bar Assn., audience members expressed dismay at the situation.

“There’s a public perception that people in the legal community aren’t good people,” said attorney Randy Bertz. “When this happened, it had a negative impression on all of us.”

The write-in candidates tiptoed around Kline’s criminal case while speaking at the Newport Beach gathering before 40 or so lawyers, most of whom already knew about the judge’s legal problems.

Two days later, there was no such restraint as candidates attended a luncheon put on by the Newport Harbor Republican Women.

Their hammering found a receptive audience. Heads shook with disgust in the dining room of the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club as the charges against Kline were read aloud.

“He’s just got to go,” said Ginny Keller, a retired real estate broker, over a plate of herb-encrusted sea bass. “He’s already forfeited that cherished trust. . . . It’s very important that he doesn’t get back in.”

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Times staff writer Jean O. Pasco contributed to this report.