Citron Wins Another Delay in His Sentencing

Former County Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron won yet another delay in his sentencing Friday when a judge said he needed more time to understand the case.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger had previously announced that he intended at Friday’s hearing to set a firm date for Citron’s sentencing.

But the judge decided against it, saying he needed to read through some 9,000 pages of testimony taken by the grand jury that investigated official misdeeds involved in the Orange County bankruptcy.

An attorney for Citron argued that the judge should wait even longer, until Citron has had a chance to fully demonstrate how he is cooperating with authorities by testifying in one of the pending criminal trials of other county officials.

Also facing criminal charges stemming from the bankruptcy are Citron’s former top assistant, Matthew Raabe, and former Budget Director Ronald S. Rubino, who has been charged with aiding and abetting the treasurer’s misappropriation of public funds.

David W. Wiechert, Citron’s attorney, said that waiting for the conclusion of the other trials could also help the judge determine Citron’s relative guilt versus that of the others facing charges.

Judge Czuleger said he would take up the matter again May 3, after he had a chance to read the transcripts.

“It was my intent when I came down here to do the sentencing and go back to my happy court in Los Angeles,” Czuleger said. “[But] I need a better understanding.”

Citron pleaded guilty last year to illegally diverting interest earnings from the investment pool that he managed for the county and some 200 public agencies.

Citron has been cooperating extensively with prosecutors in their felony cases against Rubino and Raabe.

On Friday, prosecutors gave the judge a summary of Citron’s cooperation. The judge refused to make that document public.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew Anderson said his office was not seeking a delay in Citron’s sentencing.

Meanwhile, Czuleger ordered Rubino, the former budget director, to stand trial on the charges that he aided Citron in a scheme to misappropriate money from the county’s investment pool.

Rubino, 44, entered a plea of not guilty at his arraignment Friday. Czuleger scheduled his trial for Aug. 5.

Rodney Perlman, Rubino’s attorney, told the judge he would seek a change of venue because pretrial publicity had made it impossible for Rubino to receive a fair trial in Orange County.

Czuleger denied Perlman’s motions to disqualify Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi and to dismiss the charges. He also rebuffed Perlman’s efforts, at least for now, to subpoena Capizzi.

While arguing to have Capizzi removed, Perlman told the court “that everyone knew and accepted and agreed [that] the county was getting Mr. Citron’s extra efforts.”

But when asked if that meant other county officials knew that interest was being illegally diverted from the 187 other pool participants to the county, Perlman said he had misspoken.

“Gosh, I didn’t say that at all,” Perlman said after the hearing. “If I did, I was unconscious.

“The point of our case is to demonstrate clearly to everybody that Ron Rubino didn’t commit any crime,” Perlman added.

Rubino is accused of working with Citron between April 1993 and February 1994 to help the county balance its budget and fill a deficit left by the loss of state funding.

To fill that hole, prosecutors allege, Rubino helped Citron transfer to the county money that should have been credited to the other investors in the county’s pool.

Rubino, who made no comment after the hearing, has previously called the interest diversion “a real shocker” and insisted that everything he did in his 20 years as a county employee was “aboveboard.”

If convicted, Rubino faces up to nine years in prison.

Rubino has asked the county to pay his legal fees, and some supervisors have indicated they would support such a motion. “I am fighting for my life, my reputation and my family,” Rubino told the board.