O.C. district attorney and supervisor go another round in public feud
Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas is accusing one of his fiercest critics, county Supervisor Todd Spitzer, of “falsely impersonating” an assistant district attorney in recent robo-calls promoting an upcoming ballot measure.
Rackauckas summoned reporters to a news conference Tuesday and played a recording of the call, which he said his staff had recently brought to his attention.
In the call, Spitzer, a former prosecutor, asks Orange County voters to say yes to Measure A on the June ballot, which if passed would establish a campaign finance and ethics commission.
“Hello, this is county Supervisor Todd Spitzer,” the supervisor says on the call. “I have always played by the rules. As an assistant district attorney, I know that many politicians do not. We must have oversight of politicians in Orange County.”
The problem: Spitzer hasn’t worked for the district attorney’s office in six years. That’s when Rackauckas — who at one time was grooming the former state assemblyman to take over his job – fired Spitzer amid accusations that he had misused his position.
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Since then, the feud between Spitzer and Rackauckas has only grown nastier. Spitzer has called for greater oversight of Rackauckas’ office, and said the D.A. presides over “probably the most disrespected district attorney executive team in California.”
Rackauckas’ office characterizes Spitzer as a shameless, ambition-crazed grandstander who has long harbored ambitions for the D.A. job.
In his remarks Tuesday, Rackauckas said Spitzer owes an apology to the public and to the 300 people who can legitimately claim to be prosecutors or assistant district attorneys in Orange County. Rackauckas also said Spitzer should contact voters who received the robo-calls and explain that he misrepresented himself.
“We all hope that Mr. Spitzer doesn’t insult any of you by claiming this is a misunderstanding,” Rackauckas added.
This district attorney is not enforcing the law.... I’m sure he views [Measure A] as taking away part of his authority.
— Bill Mitchell, co-author of Measure A
At a dueling news conference Tuesday, Spitzer called Rackauckas “paranoid” and said it was clear from the call that he was not representing himself as a current assistant district attorney, because he identifies himself as a supervisor in the first sentence.
“It is unequivocally clear that I identified myself,” Spitzer said. “Everyone knows that you cannot be both of these positions at the same time.”
Spitzer said Rackauckas’ news conference was retaliation for recent criticisms that the supervisor had leveled against the D.A., citing what he calls the top prosecutor’s failures of leadership and his supervision of the public administrator’s office.
Bill Mitchell, co-author of Measure A, said he asked Spitzer to make the 30-second robo-call because of his support for creating an ethics commission. He said the ballot initiative was “urgently needed” and described it as a “comprehensive mechanism to enforce and monitor the county’s existing campaign finance reform.”
“This district attorney is not enforcing the law,” Mitchell added, citing the reforms. “I’m sure he views the measure as taking away part of his authority,” he said of Rackaukas.
Rackauckas said his office was not taking a position on the measure.
Some see the measure as a referendum on the beleaguered reign of Rackauckas, whose office has been embroiled in an informant scandal that has drawn seemingly unremitting negative press.
The Orange County public defender’s office has accused the D.A. and the Sheriff’s Department of operating a secret network of jailhouse informants, thus depriving defendants of their rights by pumping them for incriminating information even after they have obtained lawyers.
An Orange County judge ruled last year that prosecutors had improperly withheld evidence from mass murderer Scott Dekraai and removed Rackauckas’ office from the case, a ruling the California attorney general is appealing.
Last week, Spitzer issued a press release saying that Rackauckas “has allowed his office to become a rudderless ship with a culture of favoritism that endangers the public.”
Spitzer cited a December 2015 report by a five-member panel of legal experts — picked by Rackauckas himself — that found the D.A.’s office suffered from “a failure of leadership,” with a culture that fostered a “win-at-all-cost” mindset among some prosecutors.
Rackauckas denied accusations of “sensational wrongdoing” but said his office was implementing reforms.
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In his press release, Spitzer also cited a recent grand jury report that found that employees at the office of the public administrator — which Rackauckas has supervised since 2014 — had suffered “tension, apprehension and a sense of resignation” as a result of favoritism in hiring practices.
The agency administers the estates of people who die without anyone able to handle their affairs. The D.A. has defended its handling of the office, saying it has reduced an enormous backlog and made strides “to rehabilitate a broken government bureaucracy.”
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UPDATES:
6:49 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional background on the tensions between Rackauckas and Spitzer.
This article was originally published at 5:45 p.m.
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