Costs Hit $2.5 Million in Bankruptcy Prosecution

The highly charged criminal investigation and prosecution of elected officials involved in the Orange County bankruptcy have cost taxpayers at least $2.5 million so far, lawyers and others involved in the case said Friday.

That’s on top of the more than $2 million taxpayers have spent defending officials who were charged.

The prosecution cost was revealed by Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi in private conversations with county supervisors before Tuesday’s stormy meeting in which the board followed through on an earlier threat to conduct a comprehensive audit of Capizzi’s office.

Capizzi reportedly revealed the figure to persuade supervisors not to order the financial audit. But the board approved it with an angry rebuke by Board Chairman Roger R. Stanton, who likened the district attorney’s investigation to “what people went through in Germany during the 1930s.”

The vote came only two weeks after the 4th District Court of Appeal threw out a civil accusation charging Stanton and Supervisor William G. Steiner with willful misconduct for failing to properly oversee former Treasurer Robert L. Citron’s investment practices.

One day later, on Wednesday, Capizzi’s office filed a six-page petition with the appellate court asking the justices to reconsider the dismissal because of some “unartful babbling” by a deputy district attorney during oral arguments and a factual error by the three-judge panel.

On Friday, the court issued a one-word reply: “Denied.”

Steiner said he expects Capizzi to appeal to the California Supreme Court, especially since the veteran prosecutor acknowledged this week that he is raising funds to explore a run for California attorney general.

“How many times does the district attorney have to be told ‘no?’ ” Steiner said. “I’m not going to be intimidated or lose any sleep over their obsession with this case even if they appeal it to the Supreme Court.”

Capizzi, who could not be reached for comment Friday, has repeatedly defended his investigation and the civil accusation as appropriate.

But until this week, Capizzi’s office has said it had not calculated the prosecution costs.

Lawyers for Stanton and Steiner have frequently criticized the use of taxpayers’ money in the efforts to remove elected officials from office. Instead, they advocate concentrating resources on the financial firms who may have had a hand in the county’s $1.64-billion investment loss.