A three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeals has ordered Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy to reinstate two felony counts of fraudulent voting against State Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) that she had dismissed earlier this year.

In March, Judge Kennedy granted the defense’s request to dismiss two of the felony charges, but refused to throw out the other six counts against the senator. The two dismissed counts were related to two elections Wright voted in after he was in office.

City News Service is reporting that Wright’s attorney, Winston Kevin McKesson, disagreed with the court of appeals’ ruling and would be evaluating the defense’s options, including asking the California Supreme Court to review the issue.

In September of 2010, a grand jury indicted Wright in connection with allegations that he lived outside the district he was elected to represent. He faced eight felony charges – two counts of perjury by declaration, one count of filing a false declaration of candidacy and five counts of fraudulent voting.

According to the District Attorney’s Office, when he announced his candidacy in February 2008, Wright claimed he lived in a five-unit apartment complex he owns on Glenway Drive in Inglewood, which is within the 25th District. That’s the same address he listed when he registered to vote in 2007. But investigators determined that since 2000, Wright had actually lived in a home in Baldwin Hills, in the neighboring 26th state Senate district.

Wright was elected to the Senate during the general election in November 2008. He previously served three terms in the Assembly.

The 25th District covers the communities of Alondra Park, Athens, Compton, Gardena, Florence-Graham, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Ladera Heights, Lawndale, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Palos Verdes Peninsula, San Pedro, Watts, Westchester, Westmont, and Willowbrook.