Rubino’s Lawyer Asks Charges Be Dismissed

Five days after an Orange County jury deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of acquitting former Budget Director Ronald S. Rubino, his attorneys asked the trial judge Wednesday to dismiss money-skimming charges against him in the interest of justice.

The attorneys told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger that prosecutors presented insufficient evidence to convict Rubino at the monthlong trial.

“The likelihood that any new or additional evidence capable of changing nine not-guilty votes to guilty is virtually nonexistent,” said Rodney M. Perlman, an attorney for Rubino.

In a five-page request, Perlman said jurors were not impressed with the prosecution’s case in the first criminal trial related to the county’s bankruptcy.

Rubino is charged with helping former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron steal $93 million in interest earnings belonging to cities, school districts and other local agencies that deposited money in the investment pool Citron ran for the county.

After Czuleger declared a mistrial last Friday, nine jurors and three alternates in the case said prosecutors had presented little hard evidence linking Rubino to the alleged diversion scheme.

But Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi has vowed to pursue the charges against Rubino at a retrial set for Oct. 8.

Perlman said jurors who were interviewed after the mistrial asserted that a retrial would “lead to the same result or an acquittal.”

Laurie Levenson, dean of Loyola Law School, said judges routinely deny requests by defense attorneys to dismiss charges against their clients,

“Judge Czuleger is very familiar with the evidence in this case, and if he doesn’t think there is a case, he’ll dismiss it,” Levenson said.