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Judge denies Farr’s motion to recoup legal fees

By Samantha Yale Scroggin/Staff Writer/sscroggin@syvnews.com

A judge has denied motions filed on behalf of 3rd District Santa Barbara County Supervisor Doreen Farr to recover more than $250,000 in attorneys’ fees from Steve Pappas, her opponent in last year’s supervisorial race.

Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge William McLafferty, who hears cases in Santa Barbara, made the ruling during a hearing Monday, according to Farr.

“We are planning to appeal, and we’ll see how that goes,” Farr said.

Neither Pappas nor the attorneys for either side could be reached for comment.

Farr said that while she was not able to be in court Monday because of appointments, her attorney was there, and she thinks McLafferty made the ruling not to award her attorney fees because of the way election law is written.

Pappas had filed a legal challenge that threatened to unseat Farr, but his arguments failed to disqualify any supposedly fraudulent votes cast in the Nov. 4 runoff election.

Farr said Monday that because she was personally sued by Pappas, she was found to be personally responsible for legal fees in con-nection with the suit even though the matter did not deal with her directly.

In December, Farr was declared the winner over Pappas in the 3rd District Supervisor race by 806 votes out of 35,524 votes submitted.

Farr said there is a lot of interest in trying to reform election law, and added she has heard from many people throughout the county who think the situation she ended up in is unfair.