Save Our State - Larry Lost a Screw

For those that remember Nativo "Larry" Lopez . . .

Quote:

Court questions Nativo Lopez’s mental health

Erratic behavior by immigrant-rights activist and former Santa Ana schools President Nativo Lopez led to proceedings being suspended in his voter-fraud hearing today.

Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Kristi Lousteau ordered Lopez to return to court on Feb. 17 so a judge can determine whether he’s competent to stand trial, said Los Angeles County district attorney’s spokeswoman Jane Robison.

Doubts of Lopez’s ability to understand the charges against him arose “after he fired his attorney and kept repeating in court that he was not the defendant,” Robison said.

Lopez has repeatedly been the source of controversy in Orange County and was recalled from the Santa Ana school board in 2003. He had been scheduled to have a preliminary hearing today to determine whether prosecutors had a strong enough case to proceed to trial.

I’ve got a call into Lopez and will update this blog item if and when I hear back.

Prosecutors allege that Lopez registered to vote at the Boyle Heights office of Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana - and voted in Boyle Heights - while living in Santa Ana last year. Lopez heads both HML and the Mexican American Political Association.

Lopez registered to vote in Los Angeles in January 2008, when he also canceled his Orange County voter registration. Prosecutors allege that he made the change so he could serve on the board of the Green Party of Los Angeles County.

Lopez’s former lawyer, Edward Munoz, told me last year that during the period addressed by prosecutors, Lopez spent adequate time at the Boyle Heights office to qualify it as a residence - including sleeping there.

“He was working 15 and 16 hours a day,” Munoz said. “The guidelines are a little ambiguous between residence and domicile.”

Lopez left the Democratic Party to join the Green Party in 2004.

Lopez faces charges alleging fraudulent voter registration, fraudulent document filing, perjury and fraudulent voting. If convicted on all charges, Lopez could be sentenced to a maximum of 3 years and 8 months in state prison.

“No one lost money,” Munoz said last year. “No one was injured. Nativo didn’t vote twice in an election.”

Munoz said that a rift within the Green Party sent a vengeful party member to Secretary of State Debra Bowen with the voter fraud allegations. Bowen’s investigators worked with Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley in filing the charges.

A polarizing figure among both anti-illegal immigration activists and some community activists, Lopez was recalled in 2003 from his post as school board member after serving six years.

In 1996, Lopez also attracted controversy - this time for registering new citizens in the congressional district where Democrat Loretta Sanchez upset incumbent Bob Dornan.

A congressional investigation later found that some voters had cast ballots before their citizenship was finalized. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office investigated allegations that Lopez’s primary organization, then known as Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, was responsible for the improper registrations but no charges were filed.

Lopez ran into difficulties again in 2002. At issue were hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding received by Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, whose services included citizenship training and English lessons. Prosecutors alleged that Lopez had improperly used the education grants to pay the mortgage on his headquarters in Santa Ana.

Hermandad Mexicana Nacional agreed to pay a $600,000 settlement, but did not admit wrongdoing.

Currently, Lopez is also fighting a lawsuit that claims he and others attempted to force a frozen foods company to retain dozens of undocumented employees.

Vernon-based Overhill Farms alleges it was the victim of defamation and extortion after the company dismissed more than 250 employees who allegedly provided invalid Social Security numbers to the company.

In a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court, the company alleges Lopez and the other defendants “have been using a variety of unlawful, extortionate tactics to force the Company to displace workers who have established their right to work in the United States, with employees who have been unable or unwilling to obtain lawful authorization to work in the United States.”

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