NEWS ANALYSIS : Document Seizure Puts D.A. on Center Court : Inquiry: Capizzi waited two weeks to enter O.C. fray. Some laud his cautious approach; others question delay.

The decision by Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi--who has maintained a decidedly low profile for the past two weeks--to seize a vanload of documents from the county Monday moves his office abruptly from the sidelines onto center court in the bankruptcy disaster.

Many in legal and political circles had been waiting to see how Capizzi, a man who built his reputation pursuing public corruption, would weigh in on the controversy.

“This whole thing is a political minefield. But it’s an area in which Mike Capizzi has an incredible amount of acumen. He’s smart, and he’s moved to stake out his position--once he decided that it wouldn’t be political suicide,” said William J. Kopeny, a veteran defense attorney and former public defender.

But for some critics, Monday’s move was too late in coming.

“We’re into our third week in this now, and where has the D.A. been?” asked Mark P. Petracca, an associate professor of political science at UC Irvine. “One might have imagined he would have (taken a more aggressive role) right away.”

Since the county declared bankruptcy Dec. 6, Capizzi’s office has stayed clear of the fray, refusing to acknowledge whether it was investigating the matter.

Even as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and at least three other agencies launched formal probes, Orange County prosecutors insisted they were merely “reviewing” the situation.

Investigators did speak last week with several financial officers from around the county, but Robert Cornelius, assistant superintendent for business services for the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, said the interview was brief and the district attorney’s representative was “kind of apologetic for stopping by and checking with us.”

But that low-key approach turned aggressive Monday, as district attorney’s officials spent most of the day executing search warrants at the offices of the Orange County treasurer and the auditor-controller, seeking documents that might reveal whether the nation’s biggest municipal bankruptcy entailed any criminal wrongdoing.

While his investigators worked behind a yellow tape cordon at county offices a block away, Capizzi maintained his conservative posture, declining to provide details on the scope or aim of his investigation as he fielded questions at a hastily called afternoon news conference.

“It’s not our custom or practice to provide road maps” for where investigations are going, he said. “We’re not confining our focus to any particular (area of the law). . . . We’re analyzing all aspects of this matter.”

Capizzi made his mark as a deputy district attorney in the 1970s in the prosecution of more than three dozen Orange County political corruption cases.

With that experience behind him, Kopeny said he believes the district attorney realized the need to assess the potential legal and political fallout from a high-profile case before rushing in.

But Capizzi obviously concluded that the gains outweigh the risks. “He’s decided not to let anyone--the Feds or the state--take over the high ground from him,” he said.

Said Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder: “It’s important for all concerned to get to the bottom of everything. If it takes a search warrant to do it, then so be it. If the treasurer and auditor didn’t do anything wrong, they shouldn’t feel bothered by this.”

Observers said a successful prosecution in the internationally known case could provide a much-needed boost in public relations for the district attorney’s office, which has suffered a string of recent setbacks. Most prominent was the decision this fall to file and then drop charges against a suspect in the Laguna Beach fires who turned out to have been in a Mexican jail at the time.

But there may be political risks for Capizzi as well, since Monday’s search warrants have already caused signs of friction among some of his colleagues.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley appeared frustrated to see yet another agency taking an active role in the bankruptcy.

And one top county official who asked not to be identified grumbled aloud over why Capizzi wanted copies Monday of a 1993 audit that was critical of Citron’s management practices. County supervisors have been pilloried for not acting on the audit, but the official said: “He got that report too, and he didn’t do anything. You’ve got to ask the question, why now?”

UCI’s Petracca maintained that such tensions can color a sensitive investigation because the district attorney’s office falls under county jurisdiction and must work with other branches of government on budget and management issues.

That may explain, Petracca contended, why the district attorney often allows other agencies to take the lead public role in corruption cases such as the influence-peddling investigation of former Supervisor Don R. Roth. The FBI moved out front publicly at the beginning of the case, but the district attorney ultimately convicted Roth on seven ethics violations.

In the bankruptcy case, the SEC’s probe was promptly followed by others launched by the Justice Department, the state Department of Corporations and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, before Capizzi announced his own investigation.

“This is really the district attorneys’ (modus operandi) in Orange County . . . to wait until some other agency steps in before going after it themselves,” Petracca said. “But this is a pretty big event--they don’t get much bigger. . . . So eventually, you look a little silly in the eyes of a public that’s angry as hell if you don’t do anything about it.”