Beleaguered Deputy D.A. Resigns

An Orange County sex crimes prosecutor resigned this week, saying he was unfairly disciplined for his handling of a case with possible connections to the abduction of Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart.

Randy Payne resigned Monday as a deputy district attorney after spending seven months on paid administrative leave and being suspended without pay for five days. He said he plans to practice law in Salt Lake City.

Payne, 41, said he was wrongly chastised for how he handled the prosecution of James Witbaard, who was arrested in January 2002 on suspicion of groping two Buena Park girls.

After spending 23 days in jail, Witbaard was released. In June of that year, while Witbaard was free on bond, Smart was kidnapped in Salt Lake City, and a month later, Payne approved a plea bargain in which Witbaard pleaded guilty to felony sexual battery in exchange for a sentence of five years’ probation.

In September, district attorney officials became concerned that Witbaard had ties to Utah and might have been involved in Smart’s abduction while out on bail, and reported this to Utah investigators. Payne said that, without being given a reason, he was placed on paid administrative leave from October until May 2003.

Witbaard was cleared of involvement in the Smart kidnapping in November, and in March, Smart was recovered in a Salt Lake City suburb. A self-professed prophet and his wife were arrested in the abduction.

In May, Payne said, he was suspended for five days without pay for questionable decisions involving the Witbaard case and others.

Payne said his supervisor, Assistant Dist. Atty. Rosanne Froeberg, told him that the plea bargain could create bad publicity if Witbaard were linked to the Smart abduction.

“She said, ‘Do you have any idea how this could make Tony look?’ ” Payne recalled Froeberg saying about Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas.

Froeberg said Wednesday she could neither confirm nor deny Payne’s statements because personnel issues are confidential.

“I’m not comfortable disputing or affirming any quotes that Mr. Payne is providing to the media,” she said. “Even though an employee may choose to discuss such issues, it does not relieve this office of the requirement to keep these types of issues confidential.”

Payne received about $70,000 in salary and benefits while on leave. County records show that since taking office in 1999, Rackauckas has suspended 14 workers, and kept them on the payroll for the accumulative equivalent of six work years, at a cost of $740,000. Also, two employees who were fired but then ordered reinstated received, according to their attorneys, about $600,000 in back pay.