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OC Assessor Faces Charges Of Filing False Nomination Papers

SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — Orange County Assessor Webster Guillory faces charges of filing false nomination papers in his re-election bid in the March primary election.

Guillory, 70, was scheduled to be arraigned Friday, but that hearing was rescheduled for Sept. 22. He is expected to be released on his own recognizance.

The Newport Beach resident faces up to four years and four months in jail if convicted.

On March 7, the deadline for filing nomination papers for the primary, Guillory gathered signatures on two petitions, while an associate gathered and collected three full pages of 10 signatures each, Senior Deputy District Attorney Brock Zimmon said.

Guillory signed his name on two of the petitions collected by his associate – falsely claiming he had collected and witnessed the signatures – and asked another colleague to sign a third petition falsely, Zimmon said.

Guillory's attorney, John Barnett, said his client did not knowingly file any petitions with false statements.

"The circumstances surrounding the filing will clearly show there was no knowing filing of an inaccurate document," Barnett said. "It's just that simple, really. He didn't file a document knowing it had any errors on it."

Guillory faces Claude Parrish, a former chairman of the state Board of Equalization, in the November general election.

(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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