Snitch Scandal: Spitzer Asks Sessions To Take Over OCDA's Office

SEAL BEACH, CA — Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer sent a letter Monday to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, asking his office to take over the Orange County District Attorney's Office, which has been rocked by allegations of the misuse of jailhouse informants.

The request from the former prosecutor fired by Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and considered a rival for his job comes one day after the CBS news magazine "60 Minutes" aired a story on the so-called snitch scandal.

On Tuesday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals, who kicked Rackauckas' office off the case against Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in the county's history, is set to begin a third round of evidentiary hearings on allegations of misuse of informants in the jails.

Dekraai has pleaded guilty and is awaiting the penalty phase of his trial, which is being prosecuted by the state Attorney General's Office.

Goethals has said he may punish the District Attorney's Office for misconduct by removing the death penalty as an option for Dekraai, which would trigger an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Just last week, Goethals sanctioned the District Attorney's Office on another case for outrageous governmental misconduct by prohibiting prosecutors from pursuing a first-degree murder conviction for Cole Wilkins, who's accused of touching off a collision that killed a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy a decade ago.

Instead, prosecutors would have to start with second-degree murder or manslaughter in a retrial of Wilkins.

In the letter to Sessions, Spitzer said he was "writing solely on my personal behalf, not for the county or the Board of Supervisors."

However, his letter was on his official stationery.

Spitzer cited Sunday's "60 Minutes" report in his letter, saying Rackauckas "contradicted himself and the members of a blue-ribbon panel he convened to investigate his office."

Rackauckas' panel characterized his office as a "rudderless ship," but when asked about that by "60 Minutes," he said that was not what he heard privately from the attorneys and legal experts who served on the commission.

"Tony Rackauckas continues to argue that everybody investigating the wrongdoings in his office are not trustworthy," Spitzer wrote. "Mr. Attorney General, Tony Rackauckas cannot be trusted."

Michelle Van Der Linden, a spokeswoman for Rackauckas, accused Spitzer of using his office to "campaign" for district attorney, "a position he so desperately covets."

Van Der Linden accused Spitzer of "slandering prosecutors and OCDA personnel with his false allegations in an effort to fuel his ambition and create the appearance of credibility."

She suggested that Spitzer's "latest political rant" was a tactic to "divert the public's attention" from the recent release of his account of a conflict he had with a man in a Wahoo's restaurant and a lawsuit an ex-employee filed accusing Spitzer of having a bad temper and demanding staff be on call around the clock for him.

"The OCDA fully anticipates Supervisor Spitzer will continue to abuse his position and the ridiculous allegations will continue as we draw closer to the election," Van Der Linden said.

Supervisor Shawn Nelson also blasted Spitzer, claiming he was playing politics.

"This is a hit piece on official time and puts us all in a bad spot," Nelson told City News Service.

"He's got every right to run for DA, but he's using our board as some sort of political tool to get at this guy, and the rest of us are just interested in doing the business of the county, not making campaign points for next June."

In the letter to Sessions, Spitzer also cited a recent legal claim filed by Rackauckas' former chief of investigators that alleged whitewashing of political corruption cases for the top prosecutor's pals and illegal electioneering by a chief of staff in the office.

Those allegations have been denied by Rackauckas' office.

Spitzer also noted that one of the private attorneys who served on his commission to investigate the snitch scandal was recently hired to represent a prosecutor facing discipline from the state Bar for prosecutorial misconduct in a child abuse case in which Goethals found the prosecutor withheld evidence from a defense attorney for strategic reasons.

UC Irvine Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, who led a group of legal experts and attorneys to request the U.S. Attorney investigate the jailhouse informant program, said Spitzer's proposal was unrealistic.

"The Justice Department can sue Orange County for the DA's actions," Chemerinsky said. "The suit could end in a settlement, a consent degree to reform the department. But the U.S. Attorney General cannot realistically take over and run the District Attorney's Office."

Chemerinsky said he was pessimistic that Sessions would continue a civil investigation of the informant program that began under his predecessor.

City News Service

Patch file photo