Countywide : Judge Contests Vote Results, Citing Mailer

A Municipal Court judge who lost his seat on the bench to a county prosecutor in a bitter and very close election is contesting the results on the grounds that his opponent violated state election laws.

Municipal Judge Dan C. Dutcher in Westminster accused his opponent, Assistant Dist. Atty. Caryl Lee, of failing to put a return address on more than 2,000 copies of a letter mailed out criticizing Dutcher.

State election law requires that campaign mailings of 200 pieces or more have a return address to prevent recipients from being misled about the mailing’s origins, Dutcher said.

“I’ve shown everyone that I’m not too good at politics,” Dutcher said. “But maybe some good lawyering can make up for it.”

Lee denied the charge, saying her campaign did three mailings and that all were properly conducted. She said she never mailed the letter to which Dutcher is referring.

“There hasn’t been any violation of the sort, and I think (Dutcher) should check his story out before he jumps the gun like this,” she said.

Five judges, commissioners and court administrators filed a petition Monday on Dutcher’s behalf contesting the election. County Clerk Gary L. Granville will submit the petition to Presiding Superior Court Judge James L. Smith for a civil court hearing and ruling on the matter.

Dutcher lost the Nov. 8 election by 1,149 votes out of 140,889, or 0.8%, of the ballots cast.

The letter in question was purportedly written by the parents of a 13-year-old boy who was killed by a hit-and-run, drunk driver. The parents, Gail and Ed Martinez, criticized Dutcher in the letter for being too lenient on the driver, a charge Dutcher has strongly contested. Dutcher attributes his loss in the election to the widely publicized charge that was taken up by Lee in other mailers.

Dutcher said the letter was misleading because it was actually prepared and mailed out from Lee’s campaign headquarters, not the family’s home. Voters might have taken a different view of the letter had they known that it was sent out by the Lee campaign, he said.

But Lee said the Martinezes wrote and mailed the letter, although they did contact her ahead of time offering to help with her campaign.

“These are college-educated, very smart people,” Lee said. “I don’t know why he (Dutcher) doesn’t think they can read and write. And if they want to speak out, it’s their right.”