3 Early Morning Raids Widen Ortiz Investigation

The investigation into the activities of San Diego County Registrar of Voters Ray J. Ortiz has taken a new turn, with the district attorney’s office making an early morning raid on his home and seizing numerous files and documents.

The raid last Friday at the Ortiz home coincided with two others in which investigators seized financial records, photographs, checkbooks and other documents at the homes of a couple whose company has done more than $300,000 in business with the registrar’s office and a woman who once worked part time in the registrar’s office.

Ortiz, who is on unpaid leave of absence and working temporarily as a consultant for a Pennsylvania voting machine manufacturer, is at the center of a criminal investigation that reportedly is focusing on contracts negotiated by the registrar, the use of rental cars and travel expenses.

Steve Casey, spokesman for Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller, confirmed that investigators armed with search warrants seized material at the three homes Friday morning.

The search warrants were approved by Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman, Casey said. Affidavits detailing reasons for the raids have been sealed by Huffman at the district attorney’s request.

Ortiz, who was in Pennsylvania working on an interim consultant’s job, was unavailable for comment. But his San Diego attorney, Merle Schneidewind, said Wednesday he will probably file a motion next week with Huffman seeking to release the affidavits.

In all, 11 district attorney’s investigators took part in the three raids, Casey said.

The raid at Ortiz’s El Cajon home took place at about 7 a.m., according to Schneidewind. Investigators took all of Ortiz’s checkbooks--both personal and those belonging to Election Professional, the name of his consulting business.

In addition, four investigators seized a scrapbook, photographs, financial records, the combination to a post office box, a briefcase containing financial files, as well as Ortiz’s driver’s license and vehicle registration and other items, according to Schneidewind.

The attorney said Ortiz, his wife and teen-age son were “detained” in the front room while the investigators searched through the house and Ortiz’s car for about two hours.

“Ray has been cooperative and he’s never been angry about what’s going on, but because of the embarrassment of this to his wife and children . . . he was quite angry,” Schneidewind said. “There’s been no indictment, no complaint filed, no real allegations that he’s done something wrong. This (the search) was a personal kind of insult.”

At the same time investigators were at Ortiz’s home, four agents descended on the Escondido home of Richard and Lora Lee Stephens, owners of Election Data Corp., which has offices in Escondido and St. Charles, Ill.

The company has been paid more than $300,000 by San Diego County since 1984 for assembling the ballot pages in vote recorders, selling voting booths and verifying signatures on petitions. Lora Stephens is also the owner of Electronic Marketing Inc., which recently leased about $8,000 worth of computer equipment to the county.

(At Ortiz’s approval, Election Data began work June 3 on a $117,000 project to verify petition signatures.)

Among the items seized at the Stephens’ home were customer files, phone numbers, business and personal checkbooks, real estate records and photographs, including some of the Ortiz and Stephens families pictured together, according to Lora Stephens.

Present during the search were Richard and Lora Stephens and their two college-age children. Lora Stephens was highly critical of the investigators, who she described as rude and intimidating.

“It was very degrading. I was in my nightgown and they didn’t allow us to get dressed without an escort,” she said. “We’ve been in this business a long time and have an excellent reputation . . . you’d have thought we were hardened criminals. I can’t tell you how degrading it is . . . how they can pull that on people with a clean record.”

In response, Casey accused Stephens of overreacting.

“Sometimes when people are undergoing a search, they regard it as an inconvenience and get a little testy,” Casey said. “Her perceptions are inaccurate.

“It’s true people aren’t given freedom of movement around the house . . . it’s our responsibility to maintain the integrity of the scene.”

The third home raided was that of Maria Caldera of Chula Vista, a longtime friend of Ortiz who worked part time for the registrar’s office from September, 1983, to December, 1984, according to registrar’s office spokeswoman Maggie Edwards.

She described Caldera as a “seasonal” employee who worked mostly around election time and was paid about $7 an hour. Caldera was unavailable for comment.

Caldera reportedly worked briefly as a consultant for Jefferies Banknote Co. of Los Angeles, a company that prints sample ballots sent to every eligible county voter for each election. This task has earned the firm at least $834,000 since 1983.

Contrary to some news reports, the county has not delayed payment to either Jefferies Banknote or Election Data.

Rod Calvao, county auditor and controller, said Wednesday that Jefferies Banknote has filed a bill for about $700,000 with the county for printing services, but that payment isn’t due yet.

The registrar’s office has already approved paying about $600,000 of the bill. The remainder is going through the normal verification procedures, Calvao said.

Election Data has a $100,000 bill pending before the county. Calvao said the claim is also going through the usual verification process.

Processing of the bills “isn’t a big deal,” Calvao said. “Part of the job in accounts payable is to make sure the legal requirements are met. What makes this a big deal is that the registrar is involved.”

He said his office is assisting the district attorney in auditing the registrar’s records, but that the district attorney hasn’t requested that payment of bills be stopped.