Steven Pappas filed a motion last week to question over half a million dollars in legal fees Third District Supervisor Doreen Farr alleges are owed to her from the 2008 Election Contest Litigation.
In the latest ongoing legal proceeding between the former rival candidates, Pappas requested additional time to research Farr’s claims that she incurred over $550,000 in attorney costs. Pappas argues Farr is ineligible to receive a portion of the legal coverage because of personal incentives to defend election results.
According to Stanley Green, the attorney representing Steve Pappas, investigators will inspect court case records to determine the validity of Farr’s claims.
“Farr filed a motion seeking attorney fees in the 2008 elections case and Mr. Pappas filed a motion seeking to continue the hearing process so we can figure out the portion of fees Farr is actually owed,” Green said.
Green said the court agreed to postpone the hearing meeting originally scheduled for March 21.
“The court today took off the calendar the date for the hearing for those fees and gave us time to research the discoveries,” Green said.
Pappas filed a lawsuit in January of 2009 disputing his 2008 loss to Farr for the Third District Supervisor seat by 806 votes, arguing the results were invalid due to voter registration fraud. Pappas alleged that turnout from the UCSB and Isla Vista community showed 101 percent of registered voters.
According to Farr, the courts sided against Pappas, stating the prosecution lacked sufficient evidence to prove mismanagement of registration forms.
“We have had four judges all say the same thing which is there was no fraud and they simply were not going to do what Mr. Pappas wanted and disenfranchise one-third of the district voters which were in Isla Vista and UCSB,” she said.
Despite the court decision, Green said there is an ongoing investigation on the actions of some of Farr’s campaign committee members. According to Green, attorneys discovered additional evidence of voter fraud after the state Supreme Court issued its verdict.