2 Losing Candidates File Suit Over Signs

Two Los Angeles City Council candidates who lost in the April primary election have filed a civil lawsuit against a San Fernando Valley businessman, charging that he and others tore down 1,500 of their campaign signs.

Walter Prince and Allen Hecht, who placed third and fourth, respectively, in the primary, contended that businessman Alan D. Fox and others who were not named ripped down the signs about two weeks before the April 9 primary. They are seeking unspecificed compensatory damages.

Prince, Hecht and two other challengers were defeated in the primary by City Councilman Hal Bernson. Bernson faces a runoff election Tuesday against school board member Julie Korenstein, who finished second in April.

Although the sign thefts were investigated by police, authorities could not identify two men who witnesses said removed the signs, and the case was dropped. Prince and Hecht told investigators that the signs cost $10,000.

Fox declined to comment Friday on the suit.

In 1989, Bernson pushed for a zoning change that allowed Fox to build a car-repair center on property owned by him and a brother on Roscoe Boulevard. The brother, Cary Fox, has said the rezoning was not unusual and that the Foxes received no special treatment from Bernson.

In their lawsuit, Prince and Hecht said the sign thefts damaged their campaigns by creating the false impression among voters that they had withdrawn from the race.