Judge Accused of Sex Offenses Could Face Runoff

An Orange County judge facing molestation and child pornography charges appeared from early ballot returns Tuesday to be headed for a runoff election.

Judge Ronald C. Kline, who spent election night under house arrest in Irvine with an electronic monitoring bracelet strapped to his ankle, needed a majority of votes to win outright reelection to another six-year term.

But returns showed the 11 write-in candidates who jumped into the race shortly after his arrest could nab enough votes to prevent that.

If Kline falls short of 50%, one of those write-ins will face him in the November election. The victor will not be known until county elections officials hand-count thousands of write-in ballots, an arduous process expected to begin Thursday.

Kline was the only candidate listed on the ballot, an edge expected to land him enough votes to qualify for a runoff.

Among his challengers were a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, a Costa Mesa City Council member and several lawyers.

All knew they were longshots, even after a Superior Court judge Friday ordered elections officials to post signs at polling places telling voters they could receive a list of the write-in candidates.

Because of the tendency of voters to reelect incumbents and not pay attention to low-profile “down ballot” races, the only real hope for Kline’s opponents was to force a runoff election.

“There’s not a little picture of a child molester on the ballot. All people see on the ballot is ‘Kline, incumbent.’ Usually, that’s enough,” said Mark Petracca, chairman of the political science department at UC Irvine. “The reality is we’re asking voters to do something they virtually never do.”

Still, many voters said they were well aware of the allegations against Kline. Some said they didn’t vote for anyone in that race because they knew so little about Kline’s challengers.

“If the information I have read is true, I do not think he should have a judgeship,” said Jane Atencio, 60, a Newport Beach Republican. “I’ll skip it. I’m not informed otherwise.”

Others picked among the write-ins, preferring an unknown over a man accused of possessing child pornography.

“I was more voting against Kline,” said Jason Burk, 24, of Fullerton, who wrote in candidate John Adams, a Dana Point attorney.

“I’m surprised they weren’t able to remove him from the ballot. I didn’t really have a lot of time to find out about the write-in candidates. But I didn’t want to vote for Kline.”

Peter Trejo, 34, of Fullerton learned about the charges against Kline only after he voted.

“I’m disappointed,” Trejo said. “I’m surprised his name was still on the ballot. You would think with something like this there would be a lot more publicity.”

Until last fall, Kline enjoyed an impeccable reputation and was expected to win reelection easily. That changed Nov. 9, two days after the filing deadline for judicial candidates, when he surrendered to federal authorities after being charged with downloading photographs of children in sex acts.

After hearing of Kline’s arrest, a former neighbor accused Kline of sexually abusing him four times between 1976 and 1978. The Orange County district attorney’s office filed molestation charges against the judge in January.

Paul S. Meyer, Kline’s attorney, would not comment Tuesday on the charges or on Kline’s activities on election day. The federal child pornography case is set for trial in June. No trial date has been set in the sexual abuse case.

“This case is being defended in the court system, where it was brought, not in the press,” Meyer said.

Times staff writers Tina Borgatta, Evan Halper, Christine Hanley and Jack Leonard contributed to this report.