Capizzi OKd Violations in ’72 Election, Activist Says

A retired Anaheim optometrist and longtime political gadfly said Monday that Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi told him 24 years ago that he could sign election petitions that someone else had circulated, a charge similar to one that has tainted the election of Assemblyman Scott Baugh.

Dr. Howard Garber, who worked with Capizzi in 1972 to pass an initiative to restore the death penalty, said, “I didn’t feel at the time [that] this minor technicality was that important.”

But after the Orange County Grand Jury indicted Assemblyman Scott Baugh, his chief of staff and the campaign manager of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), Garber said he decided to come forward, because some of the charges against Rohrabacher’s aide involved falsely filed election petitions.

Garber appeared at a Monday afternoon news conference that had been called by Rohrabacher, who has been publicly assailing Capizzi ever since investigators from the district attorney’s office executed a search warrant at Baugh’s Huntington Beach home in December.

In response to the latest accusations leveled against him, Capizzi remarked, “Is there a full moon? You’ve got to remember it’s April Fool’s.”

At the news conference in Rohrabacher’s district office, Garber recalled that just before the death penalty initiative papers were about to be turned in, Capizzi came to his office and examined a large stack of petitions.

“He [Capizzi] looked through them and brought to my attention that some [20 to 25] of the petitions were not signed by the circulators as per the law,” Garber said. “Do you want me to sign them?” Garber said he asked Capizzi at the time.

“And [Capizzi] said essentially, ‘Yes, if you want to, go ahead and sign them.’ ” So Garber said he did, as Capizzi “stood right there.”

Capizzi said Garber’s allegations are “absolutely not true.”

“Howard is someone you bump into periodically who is a real outspoken activist,” Capizzi said. The death penalty initiative “was an effort that district attorneys, deputies and police departments from around the state were involved in.

“And because of that, we advised everybody to comply with the letter of the law so as not to cause any embarrassment. I think we threw away a lot of [unsigned] petitions,” Capizzi said.

Garber’s allegations were the latest salvo in an escalating campaign of criticism by Rohrabacher of Capizzi’s investigation into Baugh’s election to the 67th Assembly District in a special election Nov. 28.

With assistance from Rohrabacher’s staff, including his campaign manager, Rhonda J. Carmony, former Assembly Speaker Doris Allen was recalled and Baugh was elected to fill her seat, giving Republicans the added vote they needed to seize control of the Assembly.

Baugh was indicted two weeks ago on four felony counts of perjury for allegedly concealing the true source and amounts of his campaign funds and getting his campaign treasurer to attest to false campaign reports. He also faces 18 misdemeanor counts on other campaign violations.

Carmony was indicted on three felony counts of election fraud for making and filing false nominating papers. According to prosecutors, she arranged for three other campaign aides to collect signatures on nominating petitions for bogus Democratic candidate Laurie Campbell, and then handed them to Campbell to sign as if she had personally circulated the petitions.

Capizzi’s office opened an investigation after The Times reported that Campbell had been put on the ballot with the help of Republican aides to help ensure a Republican victory. It was learned after the election that she was a friend of Baugh.

Despite the contentions he leveled Monday, Garber described himself as a former friend of Capizzi’s who admired the prosecutor for working to restore the death penalty.

Over the years, Garber has been associated with issues as disparate as opposing reparations for Japanese Americans interned during World War II, and publicly calling for the arrest of a popular rap music group.

He challenged state Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Newport Beach), who was then an assemblyman from Brea, in a 1992 primary, but was roundly defeated.

Back in the early 1970s, Garber said, he didn’t see anything wrong with fraudulently signing the petitions.

“You may think this is rationalizing,” Garber said, “but . . . each name and address on that petition was . . . someone interested in reinstating the death penalty.”

Garber continued, “In my mind it was a technicality. . . . Why waste good signatures?”

The retired eye doctor said he would take a polygraph exam and be willing to sign a sworn declaration about his contentions.

Rohrabacher, who has likened Capizzi’s investigative tactics to those employed by Nazis in World War II Germany, said Capizzi “should have an H, for hypocrite, branded on his forehead.”

“The district attorney, at a time when he was a law enforcement official, advised [Garber] to take the same action that he is now charging as felonies against several young Republican activists,” Rohrabacher said.

“And now he has the gall to destroy the lives of these young people and waste hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money trying to beat them into the ground and make headlines for himself.”

Said Capizzi of Rohrabacher’s accusations: “Being an elected official doesn’t guarantee credibility.”