Capizzi Didn’t Intimidate, Former Grand Juror Says

The deputy foreman of the grand jury that charged three elected officials with misconduct testified Wednesday that she never felt “threatened, intimidated or forced” by Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi or his staff.

Attorneys for the officials contend Capizzi should be disqualified from prosecuting their cases because he improperly threatened to impanel a second grand jury unless grand jurors dropped their attempt to hire an independent counsel to assist their civil investigation of the county’s bankruptcy.

Laird D. Grant, who helped chair the 1994-95 Orange County Grand Jury, testified that the grand jurors sought to hire their own lawyer because the panel was receiving conflicting advice from the county counsel, the district attorney’s office and others.

“Everybody in the county had a heightened degree of paranoia” about the bankruptcy, Grant testified. “As an independent, naive . . . body, we were trying to do the right thing. We felt an enormous amount of responsibility.”

Grant was the second grand juror to testify at hearings called to determine whether Capizzi should be removed as the prosecutor in the cases against supervisors Roger R. Stanton and William G. Steiner and Auditor-Controller Steve E. Lewis, who have been charged with willful misconduct in office.

In an unusual move, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk, who was appointed to handle the cases after Orange County Presiding Judge Theodore E. Millard disqualified all county judges, has permitted defense attorneys to question grand jurors at great length about their dealings with Capizzi and his staff.

On Tuesday, Mario Lazo Jr., foreman of last year’s panel, told the court that Capizzi threatened to impanel a second grand jury, even though he didn’t feel the civil investigation would have interfered with the criminal probe.

Grant testified that the grand jury viewed Capizzi’s threat as hollow. “We had some members who were familiar with the law,” she said. “So we didn’t think that could happen.”

Nonetheless, she testified that Capizzi and his staff warned the grand jury several times that it risked “tainting” itself if it interviewed certain county officials, such as employees of the offices of the treasurer-tax collector and the auditor-controller, who were likely to be called during the criminal investigation.

The hearing continues at 9:15 a.m. today.