Wife Of Ex-Fullerton Mayor Charged With Campaign Sign Theft

click to expand

FULLERTON (CBSLA) – A former candidate for Fullerton City Council -- and the wife of the city's previous mayor -- has been charged with stealing campaign signs against her.

Paulette Marshall Chaffee, 69, was charged Friday with two misdemeanor counts of petty theft for stealing election signs which had been paid for by local businessman Tony Bushala, the Orange County District Attorney's Office reports.

If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of one year in jail.

Chaffee came in fourth in the race for the Fullerton City Council District 5 seat, garnering only 11.5 percent of the vote.

Chaffee is the wife of former Fullerton Mayor Doug Chaffee, who himself last month won a hotly-contested race for the fourth district seat on the O.C. Board of Supervisors.

Chaffee was caught on surveillance video stealing a campaign sign which read, "No Paulette Carpetbagger," from the front of Bushala's business, prosecutors said. She is also accused of stealing another campaign sign from a Union Pacific railroad bridge in Fullerton.

The surveillance video was posted by Friends for Fullerton, an organization backed by Bushala that became active in ousting City Council members in the wake of the 2011 in-custody killing of transient Kelly Thomas.

O.C. District Attorney-elect Todd Spitzer held a news conference in October criticizing incumbent District Attorney Tony Rackauckas for not pressing charges against Chaffee when the video was released.

Chaffee is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 18.