Prosecutors Urge Prison for Former O.C. Treasurer

Orange County prosecutors have recommended that former county treasurer Robert L. Citron be sentenced to seven years in state prison and fined $400,000 for misappropriating public funds, falsifying documents and misleading nearly 200 government agencies that trusted him to invest their money.

The district attorney’s request, revealed in court documents Tuesday, falls short of the 14-year maximum prison term and $10-million fine that Citron could receive under the law.

The district attorney’s recommendation is very much at odds with that of a pre-sentencing report prepared by the San Diego County Probation Department, which recommended that the man whose investments led to Orange County’s $1.64-billion bankruptcy be spared prison time.

“Some people are going to say it’s too harsh, some are going to say it’s not harsh enough,” said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew Anderson. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger is scheduled to sentence Citron next week. The judge is expected to hear testimony during a two-day hearing from victims of the county’s Dec. 6, 1994, bankruptcy, as well as from Citron’s supporters.

In determining the appropriate punishment, the judge will consider the recommendations of the probation officer who concluded that the most fitting punishment for Citron would be probation--with the condition that he spend up to one year in county jail. The probation officer’s report also recommended that Citron be ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors strongly disagreed with the recommendations in the pre-sentencing report--handled by the San Diego County department because questions were raised about the impartiality of the Orange County Probation Department, which suffered cutbacks because of the bankruptcy.

David W. Wiechert, Citron’s attorney, said his client should be given probation or at most “home detention.” He said a seven-year prison term could be tantamount to a death sentence for his 71-year-old client, who he said is in very poor health, both physically and mentally.

Accompanying Wiechert’s legal arguments was a letter to the court from Citron, who, for the first time, publicly expressed his sorrow for his actions. “I am extremely saddened about the effect of my actions on the two things that I love the most [and] which I would never want to hurt, the County of Orange and my wife Terry,” Citron wrote. “There is no way I can make up to them the damage I have caused but I will die trying.”