Court Of Appeals Rules In Nguyen v. Nguyen: Janet Stays As Supervisor
Posted by: Jubal | 01/17/2008 2:16 PM
The State Court of Appeals has issued its ruling in the case of Nguyen v. Nguyen" "Affirmed in full."
Translation: Janet stays as Supervisor.
It's been a good week for Supervisor Nguyen. Last Friday, former Sen. Joe Dunn pulled back from the precipice and decided not to run against her.
Today, Justices Sills, Aronson and Fybel rejected the Trung Nguyen appeal of Superior Court Judge Michale Brenner's ruling.
Janet Nguyen consultant Dave Gilliard quipped, "That makes two wins for Janet for 3 votes!"
Presumably, that means an end to the bleeding of campaign dollars into her legal defense.
UPDATE (3:21 p.m.): I just called OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh with the news. His reaction:
Here's a key passage from the ruling:
Ouch -- Trung is stuck paying Janet's and the Registrar of Voters' legal fees.
Translation: Janet stays as Supervisor.
It's been a good week for Supervisor Nguyen. Last Friday, former Sen. Joe Dunn pulled back from the precipice and decided not to run against her.
Today, Justices Sills, Aronson and Fybel rejected the Trung Nguyen appeal of Superior Court Judge Michale Brenner's ruling.
Janet Nguyen consultant Dave Gilliard quipped, "That makes two wins for Janet for 3 votes!"
Presumably, that means an end to the bleeding of campaign dollars into her legal defense.
UPDATE (3:21 p.m.): I just called OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh with the news. His reaction:
"At this point there should be no doubt that all Orange County Republicans should unite together to ensure Janet Nguyen is elected and we maintain an all-Republican Board of Supervisors."UPDATE 2 (3:23 p.m.): Dave Gilliard sent over this reaction statement from Supervisor Janet Nguyen:
"I am very grateful to the courts and to friends and supporters who have stood by me since my election," said Supervisor Nguyen. "Hopefully now we can all put this hard-fought election behind us and come together and dedicate ourselves to helping solve the problems facing our county and specifically the people of the First District."Tonight would be a good day to run into any member of Team Janet in a drinking establishment, because they'll probably be in the mood to buy a round or three.
Here's a key passage from the ruling:
Trung Nguyen seeks, in this appeal from a judgment after an election contest, to be declared the winner of an election for an Orange County supervisorial seat. The winner of the election, as certified by the county Registrar of Voters after a recount, was Janet Nguyen. That is, after the recount, Janet Nguyen had the highest number of
legal votes among all those running for the office. Trung Nguyen's theory is that Janet Nguyen requested a statutorily incorrect methodology for the recount, and therefore the recount itself was invalid, and he is thus entitled to take office as the certified winner of the election based on the results prior to the recount.
In specific terms, Trung Nguyen asserts this: Janet Nguyen's request that paper absentee ballots be recounted by hand but ballots cast by "direct recording electronic" (DRE) machines be recounted electronically ipso facto invalidated the recount. He contends that sections 15627 and 19253 of the Elections Code1 do not permit
a recount in which paper absentee ballots or valid paper provisional ballots are recounted one way (manually), but electronic ballots are recounted another (electronically).
As we explain in detail below, this argument is not persuasive. There can be no doubt that, in a recount, paper ballots may be recounted manually while electronic ballots may be recounted electronically. (A recount requester does, of course, have the right to have electronic votes recounted manually, and if they are, the manual countUPDATE 3 (4:35 p.m.): Peggy Lowe has a response from Trung Nguyen over at Total Buzz.
governs over any electronic count.)
Moreover, even if Trung Nguyen's statutory analysis is correct, two undisputed facts require us to affirm the judgment in Janet Nguyen's favor:
(1) Trung Nguyen presented absolutely no evidence to the trial court that a manual recount of the electronic ballots in this case would have made any difference. (A manual recount would have been performed by examining an internal printout of each voter's choices recorded by the machine and then kept within the machine.) There are in
this case, conspicuously, no allegations, much less evidence, that the electronic voting machines in this particular election were tampered with, manipulated, or in any way electronically recorded anything other than a totally accurate vote count. (To be sure, Trung Nguyen did present evidence that the particular kind of machine used in the election could be tampered with. But he did not present any evidence that any machines in this Orange County, California election were tampered with, or were in any way inaccurate.)
(2) Trung Nguyen deliberately decided to waive the right that he had to ask the trial court in his election contest to order the electronic ballots to be recounted manually. There is no question that if such a recount was "necessary for a proper determination" of his election contest, the trial court would have been obligated to order such a recount. (See § 16601; Enterprise Residents Legal Action Against Annexation Com. v. Brennan (1978) 22 Cal.3d 767, 773, fn. 6.) Rather, in open court, Trung Nguyen disavowed his right to have a manual recount of the electronic ballots. Rather, he chose to stake his entire case on the idea that he is entitled, as a matter of law, to be placed in office by the courts as a result of an election contest based on what he claims is a statutorily invalid recount.
As we show below, our Supreme Court has made it clear in numerous cases that election results are not to be invalidated based on the technical non-compliance with election statutes where there is no showing that the non-compliance would have made any actual difference to the election. Under that line of jurisprudence, we cannot reverse the judgment even if Trung Nguyen's statutory arguments regarding the kinds of recount permitted by sections 15627 and 19253 were well-taken.
Finally, there is no way that this court, on this particular record, could legally declare Trung Nguyen the winner in this case. Simply put, there is no substantial evidence that he received the highest number of legal votes in the election. A court cannot declare a candidate the winner who has not received the highest number of legal votes. (Bradley v. Perrodin (2003) 106 Cal.App.4th 1153, 1170.) The most that Trung Nguyen might achieve in this appeal is a judgment annulling the February 2006 election and holding a new one, but that is relief he manifestly does not seek.
CATEGORY:
1st Supervisor District Special Election
Mr. Ayer registered as a Republican to be electable in an interim election with no incumbents. He did...
8 More Years! 8 More Years!
And don't forget the Janet cover story in the OC Weekly today!
And maybe now Trung can get back to the business of the GG School District and find something else to occupy his time. And Shroeder can take a vacation...no, oops, he'll be very busy with Carona. And maybe now the Machine can try to play nicely in the sandbox now?
8 more months and she is done!
http://www.ocweekly.com/features/features/dammit-janet/28343/?page=2
......The first sign of a split between Nguyen and her former friends in Orange County's Republican Party came last year, when Dina Nguyen (no relation), an attorney and Garden Grove Neighborhood Improvement Commission board member backed by Tran, ran for city council. According to several sources who spoke with the Weekly, Janet Nguyen felt threatened by the prospect of working alongside another female Vietnamese-American city council member.
"I don't have a lot to say about Janet Nguyen," Dina Nguyen says. "We had a confrontation where it was not very friendly. It was about how my fund-raiser lady was using her personal list of [donors], and I had no idea about that, and it was public record anyways. I'm not one to use other people's resources, and I have my own funds. She got very upset. She said very un-nice things."
According to one former Janet Nguyen supporter, Janet did everything she could to prevent Dina from winning her seat. "It was jealousy, selfishness, insecurity," the source says. "In politics, you work as a team. We don't live in a dictatorship; we live in a democracy. You work with people."
One person who claims he earned Janet's wrath for supporting Dina was Paul Lucas, an environmental consultant and political operative who says he admired Janet Nguyen until she yelled at him in public. "Basically, she didn't want to be sharing the spotlight of being the first Vietnamese-American woman on the Garden Grove City Council," he says. "That's the level of pettiness. It's embarrassing to even say these things because, normally, you don't attribute these things to adults."
Another was Janet Nguyen's former boss, Maddox, who consulted for Dina Nguyen's successful city council race shortly after he left the state legislature. "She kind of unloaded on me and, quite frankly, screamed at me over the phone, how dare I do it? I explained that this is how I earn my living, and [Dina Nguyen] is a qualified candidate."
Maddox says he's no longer on speaking terms with Janet Nguyen. "Frankly, I just got tired of her screaming at me," he says. "You can't go around as an elected official picking fights just to pick fights. This isn't high school. ..........
Does this mean that we can now conclude that Schroeder and Nguyen filed frivolous lawsuits?
BAF, no, it means the court would allow Janet to lose officially in coming election.
Knowing Janet, she would request a frivolous recount against the future winner of supe. election. This is how she wins the elections.
Whoa. T Nguyen slammed 3-0 with costs. Don’t think the statutes were ambiguous, The appellate court said that :The trial court’s “reconcilliation was not only insightful, but scholarly” They said that T Nuguyen’s interpretation of the statutes would lead to “absurd” results. Like three times. Probably precedent setting because nobody thought to raise the issue before. In the end “absolutely no evidence” that a manual recount would have made any difference. Appellate law 101. Besides which T Nguyen waived his right to have a manual recount. Glad to hear it’s over.
It's probably never going to be over with Sdhroeder and company. They've been blinded by pride too much. Instead of stomaching a loss and moving on they sit there and fire blindly. It reminds me of something I learned in history class years ago called Custer's Last Stand. Schroeder is going to to stand and fight with Trung and Carona by his side even though the Indians get closer and closer.
Anonymous. Not exactly pulitzer prize material but hey it hits the nail on the head. Maybe there is some credance to natural selection as far as Schroeder goes.
"I don't want Mike Schroeder with his dirty fingers in the Board of Supervisors," Grindle says. "It's bad enough he has his hands in the DA and the Sheriff's Department. Mike Schroeder is one of the most evil persons we have in Orange County in terms of politics, and he needs to go. He's awful." -Quote from OC Weekly
Shirley Grindel is my hero. LOL
Sam, I think paid bloggers are my heroes, such a easy way to earn a living as political consultants.
The legal fight may be over for now, but I doubt that Janet Nguyen is any where close to political smooth sailing. She has created so many enemies that they will come out of the woodwork to take her down, just for the pleasure.
Luong, I am not worried about issue of her "political smooth sailing". I am more concerned with her disrespectful character and unpredictable behavior. Her un-appealing image resonates with her hardened heart(?) only adds to the inquiry as to her qustionable past family up-bringing.
Luong Viet:
First and last warning: personal attacks and gossip aren't allowed. I've deleted your comment. Do it again and you'll be sent to the Village of the Banned.
This court case and Trung's subsequent comments should really be illuminating for anyone who is watching the 1st Supe. The court was very clear that this was a frivolous lawsuit (made by someone who had pro bono legal help). In the OC Weekly article, Trung is quoted by saying that he will "accept any decision" made by the court. Once the court case was decided against him, he was quoted in the OC Register as saying he was thinking about what he would do next in terms of legal arguments. This guy just doesn't get it! If he was a strong candidate, he would have been spending his last few months actually campaigning instead of sitting back having his consigliere file legal paperwork. This guy isn't anywhere in the community? Do I need to make an appointment with him to see him around?
Anon.8:35, I think you are looking at wrong place to find Trung. He does not work at your office............ I mean at Janet's office.
Everyone knows that Janet Nguyen is in poltical hot water. She's running scared with several Vietnamese American candidates challenging her.
You can tell that Janet is desperate by the way she tried to pander for Viet votes, at times shameless and funny. She holds a press conference and cried that she's a victim, when everyone knows that she is a perpetrator for many of the misdeeds in the community. She holds commemoration for Vietnamese and U.S. military while knowing nothing about the history and scarifice of these veterans. She passes out framed certificates at any community event that would want to take them as if they are candies, which actually cheapens her act and the office that she temporarily occupies.
With the Primary approaching and multiple candidates wanting to challenge Janet for this seat, she will be more desperate and that will reflect in her behavior and conduct. The truth wil eventually come out on Janet.