D.A. to Cut 14 Positions, Reassign 3

In the latest wave of cutbacks forced by Orange County’s financial crisis, Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi on Tuesday announced plans to eliminate 14 positions in his department and reassign two prosecutors who previously specialized in arson cases and crimes against the elderly.

In addition, a child-abuse prosecutor currently posted full-time at the Orangewood Home for Children will be moved and assigned to general duties as part of broad efforts to cut $4.1 million from the district attorney’s budget next year, Capizzi said. The 14 eliminated positions were in addition to 90 positions in the office left unfilled because of the fiscal crisis, including 20 attorney’s slots.

Capizzi said the district attorney’s office will continue to prosecute arson cases and abuse of children and seniors. But now these cases will go to prosecutors handling all types of cases throughout the county’s five courthouses, instead of being assigned to specialists who previously shepherded a case from investigation through trial.

That practice, called “vertical prosecution,” is often considered the most humane way to handle abuse cases that can be complex and wrenching because they involve children or the elderly. But officials said that approach is more costly than the prevalent system of handing off cases from prosecutor to prosecutor as a case moves through the courts to trial.

“These types of cases deserve special attention by prosecutors who possess special expertise in these areas,” Capizzi said. “The changes are regrettable, but we have been forced to eliminate certain programs in order to accommodate the most recent budget reduction.”

Advocates for children and the elderly worried the cuts would jeopardize efforts to stop abuses against society’s weakest.

“It would appear the people who are most vulnerable are the ones most affected by the cuts,” said Crystal Sims, litigation director at the Legal Aid Society of Orange County.

“It’s just going to make a terrible situation much worse,” said William Wise, who runs a Legal Aid Society program for senior citizens. “It was bad enough when there was only one attorney. . . . My biggest concern is that we’re seeing rising numbers of reported abuse. It’s less likely (now) something’s going to happen.”

The three deputy district attorneys who have worked solely in the areas of arson or child and elder abuse now will handle a general caseload as part of the cost-saving plan, Capizzi said. The arson and child-abuse specialists will handle preliminary hearings in Municipal Court, proceedings to determine whether felony suspects are bound over for trial in Superior Court. The elderly-abuse attorney will handle varied cases in a special-assignments unit.

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Eugene E. Howard, the county’s director of child services, lamented losing the prosecutor who was assigned to Orangewood to help with interviews of abused children and handle legal questions for the child-abuse team. But he said the cuts seemed to be unavoidable.

The sexual abuse prosecutor had worked closely with the multi-agency child-abuse program--called the Child Abuse Services Team--in which authorities, social workers and counselors interview children at the same time so that youngsters do not have to repeat their story many times to strangers. The CAST program at Orangewood will remain open, but the Laguna Hills CAST center faces closure unless the staff can raise $80,000 by the end of May for the next year’s rent.

Prosecutors working with the Orangewood program now will be summoned to the Orange facility on a case-by-case basis, but officials worry children may have to endure more potentially upsetting interviews than before. “It’s going to affect the integrity of the cases themselves,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles Middleton, who oversees the sexual-assault unit. “It definitely is going to hamper the children in that they’re not going to have the team effort.”

Brent Romney, an assistant district attorney, said the shifts were necessary to cover acute staff shortages in the bustling Municipal Court system, where felony suspects are charged and face preliminary hearings.

“We don’t have enough attorneys to handle the crush of cases,” Romney said. “We can’t afford the luxury of vertical prosecution in these cases. And they really hurt.”

While officials said the planned cuts were carefully picked to minimize risk to public safety, they predicted it now will take longer to prosecute complicated cases.

The 20 vacant attorney positions represent about 10% of the 206 attorney slots in the district attorney’s office. Capizzi said the cutbacks come at a time when county prosecutors are handling a rising number of felony cases. Prosecutors filed 12,318 felony cases last year, a 4% rise over 1993, and the number is expected to go up this year for a total increase of 10% during two years.

“We have consistently been one of the leanest and most efficient prosecutor’s offices in the state, and now we are expected to tighten our belt even further,” Capizzi said. “But with 10% fewer prosecutors to handle 10% more felony cases, it will be extremely difficult to manage.”