Prosecutor D’Agostino Blames Reiner for Job Reassignment

Calling herself a victim of retaliation by Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, the man whose reelection she unsuccessfully challenged, Lea P. D’Agostino said Tuesday that she is being transferred from her job as a career criminals prosecutor in downtown Los Angeles to a job that she regards as less glamorous and less exciting.

“The facts speak for themselves,” said the deputy district attorney, who gained worldwide publicity as the prosecutor of movie director John Landis and four co-defendants in the “Twilight Zone” case. The five defendants were acquitted last year of involuntary manslaughter charges stemming from a 1982 helicopter crash on the set that killed actor Vic Morrow and two child actors.

A Reiner spokesman said Tuesday that the county’s chief prosecutor would not dignify D’Agostino’s assertion with a comment. The spokesman, J. Schuyler Sprowles, called D’Agostino’s charge “farcical” and said her assignment to the Van Nuys office as a calendar deputy was routine.

Sprowles explained that D’Agostino was among the 150 or so transfers each year, out of a total prosecutorial work force of 800.

In the June primary, Reiner swamped his three opponents, capturing 68% of the vote. D’Agostino, who had been harshly critical of Reiner, came in second, with 13%.

It was shortly after the election that D’Agostino sought a transfer, first inquiring about a career criminals unit in offices in Santa Monica or Van Nuys. But the offer she got was for an opening in the career criminals unit in Torrance. A similar opening in Van Nuys had already been filled, Sprowles said.

D’Agostino turned down the Torrance job, because--considering that she does not drive on the freeways--its location would have given her an excessively long commute from her home in West Los Angeles.

“Ira Reiner doesn’t want me around,” D’Agostino said. “If you’re going to run against the boss,” she noted, “you’ve got to be prepared for the consequences.”

Calendar deputies are assigned to a courtroom and handle matters, such as plea bargains, that pass through on a day-to-day basis. D’Agostino’s first day in her new job will be Monday.