Judge Quits Citron Case, Cites ‘Potential Conflicts’

The judge overseeing the criminal case of former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron, who is scheduled to be sentenced next month, abruptly removed himself Friday.

Orange County Superior Court Judge David O. Carter told attorneys at an afternoon hearing that “potential conflicts” raised in the Citron case obliged him to hand off the case to another judge.

Carter said he made the decision after meeting privately with Orange County Grand Jury members assigned to investigate the county’s bankruptcy. He sent the case to Presiding Superior Court Judge Theodore E. Millard, who will either pass it to another local judge or seek a judge from another county.

Citron’s defense attorney has asked that

the case be assigned to an outside judge, contending that all Orange County judges are personally affected by the county’s financial collapse and cannot be impartial.

The 70-year-old former treasurer has pleaded guilty to six felony counts of securities fraud and misappropriation of funds and faces up to 14 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 23.

The decision by Carter followed an order earlier this week by Millard to disqualify Carter from hearing the bankruptcy-related cases against three elected officials. Millard said that no judge in Orange County should hear those three cases because they might have the appearance of conflicts of interest because of the judges’ legal battle with the county over court funding.

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The three cases involve the civil misconduct charges against Supervisors William G. Steiner and Roger R. Stanton and Auditor-Controller Steve E. Lewis.

The decision by Carter to remove himself from the Citron case left unclear whether Citron will be sentenced as scheduled next month.

Carter did not elaborate on the potential problems that prompted him to stand aside. He said the issues arose earlier this week when he met with the two grand juries assigned to investigate the bankruptcy.

“During these discussions, certain information was provided that appears to have some relationship to issues presently pending before this court in the [Citron] case,” Carter said. “At best the resolution of the potential conflicts presented by these circumstances would substantially delay the resolution of the case . . . .”

Citing laws that protect the privacy of grand jury discussions, the judge ordered transcripts of his meeting with grand jurors sealed. An attorney for Supervisor Stanton said Friday he would seek to have the transcripts unsealed.

A source close to the outgoing grand jury said Carter called the panel members into his courtroom Thursday and thanked them for their service. The source said it was a brief session in which few substantive issues were discussed.

Some members of the outgoing jury had apparently contacted Carter earlier “to express certain frustrations” they had experienced, the source said. For about 45 minutes, the judge questioned the jurors in attendance about the 18-month experience.

“It was good-natured,” the source said. “I would characterize the meeting on Carter’s part as, ‘How to improve the grand jury system and how to help the system remain impartial.’ ”

The source said some of the panel members repeated to Carter the need for the grand jury to have its own independent counsel.

Last June, the grand jury tried unsuccessfully to hire a former federal prosecutor but backed down after Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi threatened to impanel a new grand jury.

By handing off the case, Carter is acceding to an earlier request by Citron and his lawyer, David W. Wiechert, that he remove himself from the case. Wiechert alleged that Carter had an additional conflict of interest in the case because he had presided over the wedding of former Budget Director Ronald S. Rubino, who is charged with two felony counts of aiding and abetting Citron in the interest diversion. Rubino’s wife, Sharon Esterley, once worked on the judge’s campaign for Congress 10 years ago. Carter had already recused himself from the Rubino case.

Wiechert didn’t want to talk about Carter’s decision.

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“How would I know what was discussed with the grand jury?” he said.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade, who is handling the Citron case for the prosecution, said he had no idea what was said in the discussions between Carter and the grand jurors.

“I don’t think this will delay the sentencing,” Wade said.

But other developments suggested Friday that Citron’s sentencing could get hung up on other issues.

Attorney Vincent J. LaBarbera, who represents Stanton, said Friday he and the attorneys for the two other elected officials will ask a judge Monday to unseal the grand jury transcripts closed by Carter. They want to know whether there any issues relevant to their cases.

“This is very interesting,” LaBarbera said. “The judge used some very strong language.”

He said the “integrity of the grand jury process is something we want to explore.”

In a related development Friday, attorneys for Stanton and Lewis filed court papers joining Steiner’s motion seeking to disqualify the district attorney from their cases. The elected officials contend that Capizzi’s role in assisting county leaders in the early days of the bankruptcy poses too many conflicts for him to handle the case. Furthermore, they say, conflicts arise from their power over Capizzi’s budget.

Stanton contends that Capizzi is retaliating against him for opposing a county sales-tax increase supported by Capizzi and for opposing Capizzi’s advice on appointing the county’s new treasurer.

Lewis, in his court filings Friday, said Capizzi “evidenced a hostility” to the auditor as the county tried to recover from the fiscal disaster. Lewis also said that some employees in the district attorney’s office will be called to testify in his case.

The district attorney responded Friday in court documents that he and his deputies had no conflicts in the cases. Capizzi also argued that as an advocate for the people of Orange County, the threshold of what constitutes a conflict should be higher than for judges.

Times staff writer Matt Lait contributed to this report.