Countywide : D.A. Shuffles Top Aides, Elevates Wade

Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi shuffled his top leadership Thursday in the wake of the departure of one of his four assistants, naming Wallace J. Wade to head the special operations division.

Bryan F. Brown, who had served as director of the district attorney’s major offenses division, left that position in January to go into private practice.

Capizzi has moved John D. Conley, an assistant district attorney in charge of special operations, to Brown’s post. Conley brings with him the year-old sexual assault unit--which he established in special operations--to the major offenses unit.

Wade, who is now supervising deputy district attorney in the Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel, was promoted Thursday to assistant district attorney, succeeding Conley at the special operations division.

A year ago, in a major reorganization, Capizzi abolished the second-ranking position, chief deputy district attorney, and replaced it with four assistant district attorneys. Capizzi said the most recent shift represents only “a minor change for us. It just tends to line up interests and experience with particular functions.”

Conley, Capizzi said, “was an active part of the original sexual assault unit. It seemed a natural to put him in major offenses, and the sexual assault unit more properly fits in that general grouping.”

Capizzi called Wade an “outstanding trial attorney and a scholar of the law with extensive administrative experience. He has excelled at everything he’s tackled. We’re thrilled to have him as one of our four assistant district attorneys.”

Wade, 45, is a graduate of Loyola University School of Law. He joined the Orange County district attorney’s office in 1980 after four years with Los Angeles County.

Among the best-known cases Wade prosecuted was that of Beverly Jean Ernst, whose twin infants died in an overheated car in Garden Grove. Ernst was convicted in 1987 of felony child endangerment and sentenced to state prison.

Most recently, Wade prosecuted prominent criminal attorney William Yacobozzi, convicted of sending an impostor to take a DNA test in a paternity case. Wade also oversaw a county grand jury investigation which criticized a developer and city officials in Laguna Niguel in the handling of a land transaction.

Wade said the family support division, which is a part of special operations, “has an excellent tradition of vigorous and creative enforcement. I’d like to see that continue.”

In a larger sense, Wade said, all four of the assistant district attorneys “try to serve as a candid link between the trial deputies and the district attorney.”

“The assistants try to let the trial attorneys know what the district attorney’s goals are, and, at the same time, let the district attorney know what the trial deputies are experiencing down in the trenches,” he said.