Hicks’ Top Assistant Called Unbeatable in D.A. Race

Orange County Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks’ decision not to seek reelection next year has led legal pundits in the county to speculate that while many want his job, no one can beat, or likely will even challenge, Michael R. Capizzi, second-in-command in the prosecutor’s office.

Capizzi, 47, has long been Hicks’ protege and is widely considered to be Hicks’ handpicked successor.

“Mike has all the right merit badges,” said one well-respected judge who knows most of the potential candidates well. “He’s a former president of the Orange County Bar Assn., he’s big with the Lincoln Club. He’s a heavyweight (that) nobody is going to beat.”

Hicks, 63, who has been district attorney for 23 years, has refused to discuss a successor since he acknowledged to reporters Thursday that he would not seek a seventh four-year term when his seat is up next year.

But numerous sources said Friday they are convinced that Hicks so strongly favors Capizzi that he would step down before the election so the Board of Supervisors can appoint Capizzi to the post. That way Capizzi can have the title “incumbent” next to his name on the ballot. Traditionally, when a large majority of voters are unfamiliar with the candidates they tend to favor an incumbent.

“If Mike is able to run as an incumbent, no, I won’t run against him,” said one potential candidate who asked not to be named. “He would be hard enough to beat now; that would make it impossible.”

Supervisor Don R. Roth said Hicks came by the Hall of Administration a few days ago to let the supervisors privately know of his plans not to seek reelection. He said Hicks never specifically said he would step aside early so Capizzi could be appointed, but that it was left open as a possibility.

When Roth was asked if Capizzi would be the likely board choice for the appointment, the supervisor answered, “Of course,” adding that it has been obvious that Hicks has favored his chief assistant for the job.

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who served on the Fountain Valley City Council when Capizzi was on the Planning Commission there, said of him: “It’s pretty difficult to find somebody with as good a track record as he has.”

The only other name mentioned as a potential candidate by nearly everyone surveyed was James G. Enright, chief deputy district attorney who is third in the office behind Capizzi, and much more popular with the rank-and-file deputies in the prosecutor’s office.

Enright is on vacation and was not available for comment Friday. But friends close to him say that no matter how much he would love to have the job, he may be too close to retirement, at age 63, to take on such a fight.

Other names prominently mentioned as possible candidates are Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, a former homicide prosecutor in Hicks’ office; former Superior Court Judge Byron K. McMillan, and private attorney Robert D. Chatterton, also one of Hicks’ former homicide prosecutors.

None of those three, however, were viewed by anyone as formidable opponents against Capizzi. Chatterton, lawyers say, would have to take a cut in income if he won the post. McMillan reportedly has been interested in the post for years, but some sources say his interest has waned now that he is one of the most sought-after criminal attorneys in Orange County.

Most people interviewed say that if anyone close to being a viable candidate would run, it would be Carter.

Carter, a Democrat, ran for Congress in 1986 against incumbent Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) but was easily defeated. Carter’s friends, however, say the campaign whetted Carter’s appetite to run for public office again, and that the district attorney’s job is the one he covets most.

But Carter also is close to Enright, some sources say, and would never run if Enright decided to go for the seat.

Carter and McMillan, who is also a Democrat, are considered long shots by many because of their political affiliation, even though the district attorney’s job is nonpartisan on the ballot.

But former state Democratic Party Chairman Richard J. O’Neill said a Democrat could win if the person had enough money to mount a campaign.

“McMillan would be a great candidate,” O’Neill said. But he added: “I’d say to beat Capizzi you’d need $1 million just to get a look in.”

Capizzi, himself, has little to say about the prospect.

“The chances I would not run would be remote, but it’s too early for me to be making any statement right now,” he said. But he added, “The next year is certainly going to be interesting around the courthouse.”

No one doubts Capizzi’s ties to Hicks. It was Capizzi who led the successful political corruption cases for Hicks against politicians such as former Rep. Andrew J. Hinshaw for soliciting a bribe and former county supervisors Ralph Diedrich and Philip A. Anthony on campaign law violations. He also led the prosecution of former Supervisor Robert W. Battin, who was convicted of misusing his county staff and office materials in campaign work. Capizzi also won the conviction of Diedrich for bribery.

Capizzi, who has spent his entire career in the district attorney’s office, became an assistant district attorney in 1971, a position under that of Enright on the department’s organization chart. But in 1986, Capizzi was elevated to chief assistant district attorney, which put him above Enright.

Prosecutors in the office, however, say the relationship has worked out well enough. Capizzi is Hicks’ principal administrator, but Enright supervises the homicide panel, the most prestigious group of attorneys in the office.

Others who were mentioned as potential candidates by two or more lawyers interviewed included Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown, prosecutor in the Randy Steven Kraft serial murder trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Avdeef, now assigned to the gang unit, and Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard M. King, on the homicide panel. Several mentioned former Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Rackauckas, who was one of the statewide leaders of the move to unseat former California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, as possibly interested in the post.

John Gier, a former investigator in the district attorney’s office, said when interviewed Friday he hoped that the 1990 election did not cause a split within the office should Capizzi and Enright both decide to run. But many attorneys who are in the office now believe that would never happen.

“We’ve got enough to worry about just trying to prosecute all the crooks in this county,” one of them said. “We might take sides in an Enright-Capizzi fight, but when it’s all over, we’ll be together.”