Steel attorney will ask for dismissal of charge

Deepa Bharath

COSTA MESA -- Councilman Chris Steel’s attorney says he will make a

motion next month asking a Superior Court judge to dismiss one of the two

felony charges against him.

The Orange County district attorney in May charged the councilman with

perjury and accused him of allowing resident Richard Noack to sign the

2000 election nomination papers on behalf of his wife and for signing the

1998 papers for a legally blind woman, Alice Billioux.

Steel’s attorney, Ron Cordova, was poised to argue his motion Oct. 12,

but that was delayed to Nov. 30.

Cordova maintains that Judge Thierry Patrick Colaw’s decision to throw

out a civil case brought against Steel by resident Michael Szkaradek will

have a bearing on the criminal trial.

Colaw ruled that Szkaradek did not show enough evidence to prove that

Steel deliberately falsified election nomination papers.

Cordova’s motion will determine whether Colaw’s judgment, which

involved only the 2000 charge, will act as a “bar to the prosecution” in

the criminal case because the burden on the prosecution is greater in a

criminal case than in a civil trial.

Steel still would have to fight the charge involving the 1998

nomination papers.

The councilman has consistently declined offers from the district

attorney to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges and give up his council

position, which he won last year after 10 attempts.

The motion is scheduled to be heard at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 30 in Judge

Carla Singer’s courtroom at the Orange County Superior Court in Santa

Ana.