Judge Orders Halt to Mailers That Label Tucker a Felon : Politics: Ruling stems from a $16-million slander lawsuit filed by the Compton mayor against a political action committee, Rep. Mervyn Dymally and opponent Lynn Dymally.

SOUTHEAST AREA —  A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ordered a Paramount-based political action committee to stop publishing campaign mailers that describe Compton Mayor Walter Tucker III as a convicted felon.

Judge Richard Kalustian’s ruling stems from a $16-million slander lawsuit filed last week by Tucker against the Truth in Politics committee, Rep. Mervyn Dymally and Compton school board member Lynn Dymally, whom Tucker contends are in cahoots to ruin his campaign for Congress. Tucker sought a restraining order as part of the lawsuit.

The suit is the latest in what has become one of this political season’s most brutal congressional campaigns as Tucker and Lynn Dymally battle each other for the 37th District seat held by Mervyn Dymally, who is retiring.

Keeping things hot is TIP, which has ambushed several candidates with its take-no-prisoners brand of politicking.

Kalustian on Wednesday signed a temporary restraining order preventing TIP from reporting that Tucker had been convicted “for the crime of preparing false evidence . . . a FELONY” while working as a prosecutor in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

In fact, Tucker was charged with one felony count of preparing false evidence after he changed the date on a set of photographs he received while prosecuting a narcotics case in 1986. However, he later pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of altering an official document. He was fired, placed on three years’ probation and ordered to pay a $100 fine.

“I made a mistake; I was young and overzealous and I made a judgment call that was wrong,” said Tucker, 35. “I have readily admitted that what I did was wrong and I paid for it. But I was never convicted of a felony. Talk about Truth in Politics. They have totally lied to the people.”

William Schlitz, the 21-year-old treasurer of TIP, admitted the group had erred.

“It wasn’t that we were lying,” he said. “Tucker was charged with a felony, but he pleaded to a misdemeanor. So now we can’t say it was a felony, just a misdemeanor. I mean, tomato, to mah to--he still committed a crime.”

In the slander lawsuit, Tucker’s attorney, Bryan J. Thomas, alleges that Rep. Dymally and his daughter are associated with TIP. Thomas provides as evidence a memo from Culver City-based Consulting Services Inc., run by Ken Orduna, Dymally’s chief of staff. Item No. 4 on the unsigned one-page list of instructions appears to include an order for a letterhead for Dymally ‘92, Consulting Services Inc. and TIP.

Rep. Dymally said Thursday that he had not seen the instruction sheet and could not comment on it. However, he admitted that he has acted as an adviser to the college students who volunteer on TIP’s staff. He would not discuss the extent of his involvement with TIP.

“Do you think I am going to sit down and provide (details of) my involvement in a campaign?” he asked. “I’m not going to lay out my strategy for The Times. I’m trying to run a campaign. . . . The bottom line is, ‘Is the information TIP is providing accurate or not?’ What difference does it matter who is behind it?”

Dymally said TIP is a multiethnic group of college students who base their campaign material on newspaper articles. If the group were white, he said, the media would praise its work “despite the veil of secrecy.”

Allegations that TIP and the Dymallys are connected have all but overshadowed the issues in the 37th Congressional District, which includes Compton and Paramount.

Lynn Dymally has repeatedly denied any connection. But each time, her opponents point out what they see as inconsistencies:

* Both Schlitz and TIP President Michael Robbins worked for Rep. Dymally--Schlitz as an intern, Robbins as an aide. In addition to his TIP duties, Robbins is managing the Assembly campaign of Evelyn Wells, a Dymally-backed candidate.

* A call placed to the phone number that TIP filed with the Secretary of State is answered with a cheerful “Dymally ’92.” Office assistants willingly take messages for Schlitz and Robbins.

* A recent press release from the congressman’s office listed Schlitz as a contact.

* The group purports to be a “nonpartisan committee . . . not affiliated with any candidate or party,” yet between January and March this year it donated $4,000 to Wells’ Assembly campaign.

* Thus far, only candidates who are running against Dymally-backed candidates have been targeted with mailers. For example, Carson City Councilwoman Vera Robles DeWitt, who is running against both Tucker and Lynn Dymally for the congressional seat, was blindsided by TIP in her recent City Council reelection campaign. TIP mailed out a piece with her laughing face superimposed on the body of a pig dressed in a tutu. The mailer listed 12 reasons why DeWitt should not be reelected, rehashing her personal bankruptcy in 1984 and accusing her of giving inside information to developers, among other items.

In response, DeWitt wrote Lynn Dymally a three-page letter denying that she ever gave out inside information, asking her to condemn the activities of TIP. Lynn Dymally never responded, said DeWitt.

TIP also has targeted Assemblyman Willard H. Murray (D-Paramount), who has been feuding with Rep. Dymally. Past contributors to Murray’s campaigns were sent letters highlighting Murray’s rating as the worst legislator in Sacramento by the California Journal, a monthly magazine that analyzes politics and government. The magazine recently rated the intelligence of Sacramento legislators and gave Murray one of its lowest scores.

But Tucker has borne the brunt of the attacks by TIP. The group has repeatedly blasted the mayor, painting him as a blindly ambitious politician who “will do anything to accomplish his objectives.”

TIP has charged in several pieces that Tucker lives in Paramount, not in Compton. Tucker has denied the charge and last week asked the judge for a temporary restraining order prohibiting TIP from saying so. However, Kalustian, citing the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech, denied the request.

In a recent newspaper ad, TIP rehashes Tucker’s dismissal from the district attorney’s office. The same ad shows a photograph of Tucker apparently pulling campaign signs from the trunk and back seat of his city car, which would be a violation of state laws that prevent elected officials from using city cars for personal campaigns.

The ad says: “Does Tucker believe that because he was elected mayor of Compton with less than 40% of the vote that he has a mandate to do whatever he feels like, including breaking the law? Is there no shame? Is there no accountability? Disgusting!”

Tucker denied that he used the city car to campaign, adding: “I believe Dymally and TIP to be one and the same. I am a tremendous threat to Dymally’s daughter’s candidacy.”

Schlitz, who has spent much of his time fielding inquiries from reporters who want to discuss the ties between TIP and Dymally, dismissed the accusations. He described TIP as “a bunch of starving students putting out the truth about politics.”

He said the reason that TIP and the Dymally campaign share the same phone is that TIP used the Compton office before the campaign moved in and has yet to change its phone number. The number will be changed, he said.

As for targeting candidates opposed to the so-called “Dymally machine,” he pointed out that TIP had not attacked Assemblywoman Teresa Hughes, who is running against Dymally-backed Lynwood Councilman Paul Richards in the 25th District state Senate race.