Indicted Orange County Judge Will Withdraw From Election
By Christina Almeida
Originally published by The Associated Press, March 14, 2002
LOS ANGELES — A judge under house arrest on child molestation and child pornography charges will ask for a court order removing his name from a run-off election ballot, his lawyer said.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Ronald Kline, who failed to get more than 50 percent of the vote March 5, faces a run-off against the challenger with the second-highest vote total.
Kline's attorney, Paul S. Meyer, has sent notices to all 11 write-in candidates who ran against Kline, asking whether they support taking his name off the ballot. Meyer also said he would ask a judge during a hearing Thursday in Santa Ana to withdraw Kline's name from the election.
He declined to discuss the matter further before the hearing, saying: "All matters involving Judge Kline will be presented in court and not in the press."
Kline, 61, has pleaded innocent to a federal charge of possessing child pornography and to four counts of lewd conduct with a child under the age of 14. His case was moved from Orange County to Norwalk Superior Court in Los Angeles County. He returns to court March 19.
An alleged victim came forward after learning of the indictment, and in January, Orange County prosecutors also charged Kline with sexually abusing a boy nearly 25 years ago.
Kline is on paid leave. He was put under house arrest by a federal judge and ordered to wear an ankle monitor, which prohibited him from campaigning.
If his request to quit the election is granted, it is likely the top two write-in candidates would face off in November, election officials said.
Preliminary results released Wednesday with nearly half the precincts counted showed write-in candidate John Adams with 56,762 votes, more than triple the 17,328 gained by the next closest contender, Gay Sandoval.
The time-consuming task of counting approximately 230,000 write-in ballots by hand is expected to take several more weeks.
Kline had already filed to run for another six-year term when he was indicted in November after an Internet watchdog group forwarded a tip to authorities that he was downloading child pornography. Kline initially was not challenged and the deadline to enter the election passed by the time of his indictment, forcing his 11 opponents to run as write-in candidates.
"A miracle has happened," Sandoval, a former deputy district attorney, said of Kline's decision to leave the race. "This is about what's best for Orange County. Wouldn't it be nice if we were just known for our nice beaches and our amusement parks, instead of this soap opera?"
