Capizzi Names 3 to Top-Tier Positions : Administration: Bryan F. Brown, Jan J. Nolan and Brent F. Romney are named assistant district attorneys.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi Monday announced the appointment of three new administrators, completing the first transformation of the office’s top management tier in 25 years.

Named as assistant district attorneys were Bryan F. Brown, Jan J. Nolan and Brent F. Romney.

Nolan and Romney supported Capizzi when he ran for district attorney last year. Brown chose not to participate in any election campaign. The three assumed their new duties Monday.

“It’s a real opportunity for me to select people who are in tune with my goals for the office,” Capizzi said Monday after the announcement. “They will play key policy-making roles. They’ll bring into the job the background, the experience and the demonstrated abilities needed to run this office.”

Two high-level positions were vacated when Assistant Dist. Atty. Edgar A. Freeman, who ran against Capizzi in the June primary, and Edward J. Merrilees, a Capizzi supporter, retired at the end of March.

In addition, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James G. Enright, who lost to Capizzi in the November runoff election, resigned in December. Enright’s position was eliminated to allow for a third assistant district attorney position, Capizzi said.

Capizzi made two other key appointments in January: Maurice L. Evans, who had been deputy district attorney in charge of special operations, was named chief assistant, and John D. Conley, a deputy district attorney, succeeded Evans as head of special operations.

Capizzi was appointed district attorney by the Board of Supervisors in January, 1990, to succeed Cecil Hicks, who left to take a judgeship. Hicks had been district attorney since 1966, and that was the last time all top-level management positions in the office had changed at one time.

“It’s a new era in the district attorney’s office,” said Nolan, 52, who has been with the office since 1974. Nolan headed the consumer/environmental protection Unit before taking over Freeman’s job as supervisor of Superior Court operations. “We’re all excited about coming in to make changes.” Nolan added that she hopes to play a major role in seeing that more women are promoted once she settles into her new duties.

Nolan has held administrative positions for the past five years. Romney, 43, and Brown, 49, however, have spent much of their careers trying cases in court, and both men said they will miss the excitement of the courtroom.

“I love to try cases; I’m a trial lawyer,” said Romney, who joined the office in 1975 and was most recently a member of the Juvenile Court unit. Romney said, however, that he is looking forward to his new job as head of Municipal Court operations--the position held by Merrilees--and being involved in more countywide cases.

Brown, who was supervisor of the homicide unit, said he accepted his promotion to head of the homicide, gang, and juvenile units because he believed that it was time for him to move into an administrative position that will enable him to help train deputy district attorneys.

The promotion “is a real challenge to try to impart in our young attorneys some of my experience,” said Brown, who has been with the office since 1968.

Brown successfully prosecuted such high-profile serial murderers as Randy Steven Kraft and William George Bonin, who was known as the Freeway Killer.