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Trutanich Ordered to Change Job Description on the Ballot

By Brian Frank
April 9, 2012
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City Attorney Carmen Trutanich talks with Senior Lead Officer Deon Joseph during the September Skid Row Neighborhood Walk. Photo: Flickr user ericrichardson

A judge has ruled that City Attorney Carmen Trutanich was trying to mislead voters when he listed himself as "Los Angeles Chief Prosecutor" on candidate filings, according to LA Weekly.

Instead, Trutanich has been ordered to change his ballot designation. He will now appear on the June 5 primary ballot as "Los Angeles City Prosecutor."

Trutanich is facing off against five other candidates in the race to be the next district attorney for Los Angeles County. The kerfuffle arose when one of his opponents, prosecutor Alan Jackson, sued to block the use of the first ballot designation after LA Weekly broke the initial story. Jackson argued the job description was phrased intentionally to make voters think Trutanich was the incumbent.

Why did it have to go all the way to the courts? We make sense of it in this explainer.

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