SAN DIEGO — A new lawsuit is challenging whether or not San Diego Police Officer and mayoral candidate Larry Turner is a resident of San Diego and is qualified to appear on the ballot.
Resident Michelle VanDiver filed a writ of mandate on February 13, claiming that Mr. Turner lives in El Cajon and does not have a primary residence in San Diego, contrary to what his candidacy papers claim.
Since announcing his run, Turner has criticized Mayor Todd Gloria on several issues, most notably Mr. Gloria's handling of San Diego's homelessness crisis and the Mayor's homeless tent sites and encampment sweeps.
Turner is one of six candidates running to unseat Mayor Gloria. The top two vote-getters in the March 5 Primary will move on to the November General Election.
Now, less than a month away from the primary, the court challenge looks to cast doubt on Turner and his qualifications for running for office.
The Rules
To run for Mayor or any elected office in San Diego, candidates must live in the city of San Diego and be registered to vote in the city for at least 30 days before filing nomination papers.
According to campaign disclosures, Turner filed his intention to run for San Diego Mayor on September 19, 2023, listing a 92101 downtown zip code as his "primary" residence.
The Legal Challenge
According to a non-conformed copy of the lawsuit, obtained by CBS 8, resident Helen Michelle VanDiver alleges that Turner did not satisfy the city residency requirements, alleging that Turner is using his then-campaign manager's downtown address as his primary residence when in fact he and his family live in El Cajon.
"Under oath on December 1, 2023, [Turner] attested he then had been registered to vote in the City of San Diego for the prior 30 days. The critical issue here is whether or not he actually principally lived in the City of San Diego during those 30 days and was domiciled at an address within the City of San Diego, and whether he continued to do so up until December 7, 2023, when his nomination papers were filed." (emphasis theirs)
The newly filed Writ of Mandate claims that the downtown address that Mr. Turner listed as his residence is owned by Turner's former campaign manager, Giorgio Kirylo.
VanDiver's challenge then says that Turner once again moved in late November 2023, to Ocean Beach.
Reads the lawsuit, "[Turner's] move in the last week of November to the OB bungalow, with a switch in voter registration on November 23, 2023, would not have provided the 30 days of continuous valid registration mandated by the San Diego Municipal Code and as expressly communicated to potential candidates in the Candidate Information Manual."
Larry Turner's Response
CBS 8 reached out to Larry Turner on the lawsuit, which he dismissed as a political attack from a supporter of the mayor.
"I am the candidate they fear most," said Turner. "While the other candidates running are all good people, I am the one the mayor and his people fear most. This is their attempt at trying to find technicalities to take votes away from me before the primary."
Added Turner, "I am not a politician. I only know how to run marathons and after criminals, I didn't want this job but something has to happen and the residents here are done with this current reign of error."
Turner said he has lived in San Diego for much of his life and has lived in the city full-time since retiring from the Marines.
Protecting the Voters
However, VanDiver's attorney, Robert Ottilie said that politics has nothing to do with the legal challenge. The focus of it is to protect the integrity of elections.
"Inherent in any election-related litigation is that the outcome will have a political impact,” said VanDiver’s attorney, Ottilie. “We have these legal challenges because the laws impose certain qualifications, and there are only three qualifications to run for Mayor of the City of San Diego. One is that you be continuously registered to vote, and be lawfully registered, in the 30 days before you file your nomination papers.”
Added Ottilie, “At this time, my client only has publicly available information, and information available to a licensed private investigator. Of that body of evidence, every single piece of evidence shows that Mr. Turner still resides in El Cajon. There is not a single thing available to the public or a private licensed investigator that would show any association with either of the two residences for which he has registered to vote in San Diego. At this point, the onus is on him to share that evidence with the community.”
CBS 8 reached out to the San Diego City Clerk's Office. The clerk told CBS 8 that the office worked alongside the Registrar of Voters to verify that Turner was a registered voter at least thirty calendar days before the date that his nomination papers were filed.