Judge to Hear Motion Today to Disqualify Capizzi in Baugh Case

SANTA ANA —  A Municipal Court judge is set to hear a motion today to disqualify Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi from prosecuting the highly charged campaign-fraud case against Assemblyman Scott R. Baugh (R-Huntington Beach).

Judge William L. Evans is expected to decide whether Capizzi’s office should keep the case or pass it on to the state attorney general. Evans is also expected to consider a second defense motion to drop the entire case against Baugh.

Baugh’s attorneys contend that prosecutors are guilty of “outrageous conduct,” including blackmailing a judge and coercing a key witness to perjure himself, for the sake of Capizzi’s political ambitions.

But prosecutors counter they’ve done nothing improper and call Baugh’s heated attacks an attempt to divert attention from the assemblyman’s conduct.

Prosecutors received a boost earlier this month when investigators of the state attorney general’s office concluded that Baugh’s allegations were groundless. Baugh dismissed the state’s investigation, saying the attorney general backed off the case because it’s “a little too hot to handle.”

Baugh and his political mentor, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) have publicly vilified Capizzi ever since prosecutors from his office convinced the Orange County Grand Jury to indict the assemblyman, his chief of staff and a Rohrabacher aide on charges of violating election laws on the eve of the Republican primary last March.

Their attacks intensified after a Superior Court judge in September tossed out 17 of 22 charges on which Baugh was originally indicted, on grounds that grand jurors had not been allowed to hear “prior inconsistent statements” by Daniel Traxler, Baugh’s campaign treasurer. Traxler’s testimony was pivotal in winning the indictments.

Capizzi’s office refiled the charges a month later, and Baugh was subsequently arraigned on five felony charges of perjury and 13 misdemeanor violations of the California election law. Baugh faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.

The district attorney’s office took aim at Baugh’s repeated accusations of “a witch hunt” in hundreds of pages of court papers filed last week in Orange County Superior Court. Prosecutors tout five declarations stating Traxler did not lie as crucial to Thursday’s hearing.

“We debunk their allegations of perjury,” said Brent Romney of the district attorney’s office. “We take the position that all Baugh’s talk is political rhetoric.”

If the defense motions fail, prosecutors hope to put on evidence against Baugh in preliminary hearings either Friday or Monday, Romney said.

“We are going to lay our cards on the table [at the preliminary hearing], and let the public decide if there’s a case against Baugh or not,” Romney said.

Baugh’s attorney, Allan H. Stokke, did not want to comment on the district attorney’s recent court filings except to say he “didn’t quite understand” why it took so long for prosecutors to make their case.

Baugh’s alleged wrongdoing occurred during the campaign to recall Doris Allen in 1995. After the election, Baugh was accused of helping recruit a close friend and former co-worker to run as a Democrat to siphon support from his principal Democratic rival and help ensure his victory.

The decoy candidate, Laurie Campbell, and her husband contributed $1,000 to Baugh’s campaign. To conceal Baugh’s relationship with Campbell, Traxler said, the couple’s contribution went unlisted in several campaign finance reports. Traxler told investigators he later repaid Campbell’s husband at Baugh’s direction.

Last July, the assemblyman aggressively attacked Traxler’s credibility in a 51-page analysis of his testimony, saying “without question, Traxler lied at every available opportunity and blamed the circumstances . . . on Baugh.”