Ex-Prosecutor Says Ties to Ex-Fugitive Led to Firing

A Los Angeles County deputy district attorney is fighting his dismissal for keeping a gun that was part of a court case, saying that the real reason for his firing was his friendship with another prosecutor who fled the state while facing child molestation charges.

A spokesman for the district attorney’s office Friday denied there was any connection between the recent firing of the former prosecutor, Patrick J. Mallen, and his friendship with one-time fugitive Harvey W. Harper.

“That’s simply not true,” said Assistant Dist. Atty. Curt Livesay, who led an investigation of district attorney’s office personnel in 1986 to determine whether anyone there had helped Harper flee the state.

That investigation turned up no evidence that any deputy district attorneys played a role in Harper’s disappearance in January, 1986, just minutes before a jury in Ontario convicted him of sexually molesting his two teen-age daughters.

Harper was captured in September in Pueblo, Colo. He also was fired from his position as deputy district attorney.

Mallen, 42, was fired on Aug. 21 after officials said they found that for 12 years he had kept a gun that had been evidence in a trial and should have been returned to authorities. He was accused of misappropriation of evidence, possession of a weapon in a court building and embezzlement of property.

He appealed the firing to the county Civil Service Commission five days later, stating in a letter that “the true reason” for the discharge was his “past friendship and association” with Harper.

While Harper was on trial, he reportedly turned ownership of his Rancho Cucamonga home over to Mallen.

James Arenas, who heads the labor relations division of the district attorney’s office, said Friday that a Civil Service Commission hearing on the case, scheduled Nov. 12, will only consider the truth of the allegations against Mallen and whether firing was the proper disciplinary action.

Mallen may try to raise the question of whether his friendship with Harper had something to do with the discharge as “a mitigating factor,” Arenas said.