State Atty. Gen. Dismisses Baugh’s Claims Against D.A.

California’s attorney general has absolved the Orange County district attorney’s office of criminal accusations by Assemblyman Scott R. Baugh that prosecutors encouraged a key witness against the legislator to lie to the grand jury about a campaign fraud scheme.

In a Jan. 7 letter to Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, Baugh requested an investigation into “crimes of deception” by the district attorney’s investigators who allegedly encouraged Daniel Traxler, Baugh’s campaign treasurer, to perjure himself when he testified before the Orange County Grand Jury.

“District attorney personnel committed multiple crimes in facilitating Mr. Traxler’s perjury by cajoling him into changing his story two hours before he testified before the grand jury,” Baugh alleged.

But James D. Dutton, a deputy attorney general, informed Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) in a terse, one-paragraph letter written Tuesday that his charges were groundless.

“Our office has conducted a thorough evaluation of the alleged perjury of Daniel Traxler and the alleged suborning of perjury by members of the Orange County District Attorney’s office,” Dutton wrote. “Our office has terminated the evaluation and found no cause to proceed further in the matter.”

Baugh and his political mentor, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), have pilloried Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi ever since prosecutors from his office succeeded in persuading the Orange County Grand Jury to indict the assemblyman, his chief of staff and a Rohrabacher aide for election law violations on the eve of the Republican primary last March.

They stepped up their attacks after a Superior Court judge in September tossed out 17 of the 22 charges on which Baugh was originally indicted. The judge ruled that grand jurors had not been allowed to hear “prior inconsistent statements” by Traxler.

Capizzi’s office refiled the charges a month later, and Baugh was subsequently arraigned on five felony charges of perjury, and for 13 misdemeanor violations of California election law.

“There is no doubt in our mind that that was the conclusion that had to be reached,” Capizzi said of the attorney general’s decision. “We hope that it calls attention to the fact that it’s just another of the false claims and allegations made by the defendants and their close friends and supporters.

“By now, the public should realize they are doing nothing more than shouting ‘Wolf, wolf’ and that it’s time to get past that and get this to trial and quit wasting the court’s and everybody else’s time.”

Baugh was reluctant to comment on the decision Thursday, saying, “I have not received a copy of this letter.” But he did say that “just because the attorney general does not feel that he could prove perjury, doesn’t mean that the grand jury was not deceived [or] that the D.A. did not engage in other misconduct which mandated dismissal of the case.”

Although Dutton’s letter and Baugh’s original request for an investigation were made public by the attorney general’s office in response to a California Public Records Act request, Baugh nonetheless accused Capizzi’s office of disclosing a confidential matter.

“My request to the attorney general was a confidential request that has never been released to the public, and therefore I would question how the Los Angeles Times got a copy of this letter, if it wasn’t from the D.A.’s office.”

“Is the D.A. trying to litigate a collateral issue in the press in contravention of their implicitly understood gag order on this case?” Baugh continued.

Allan H. Stokke, Baugh’s lawyer, added, “It’s strange that the people who have been so vociferous in accusing Baugh’s side of trying the case in the newspapers have leaked it to the press. My guess is somebody must have told the press where to look.”

But Capizzi responded, “There they go again crying, ‘Wolf, wolf.’ ”

The misdeeds were allegedly committed during the campaign to recall Doris Allen, who enraged many of her fellow Republicans by arranging her election as Assembly speaker using her vote and those of Assembly Democrats.

Six candidates were vying to replace Allen in the pivotal November 1995 special election that, for a brief time, put the Republicans in control of the Assembly.

After the election, Baugh was accused of helping recruit a close friend and former co-worker to run as a Democrat to siphon support from his principal Democratic rival and help ensure his victory.

Before the election, the decoy candidate, Laurie Campbell, and her husband contributed $1,000 to Baugh’s campaign. To conceal Baugh’s relationship with Campbell, the couple’s contribution was not listed on several campaign finance reports.. Traxler told investigators he hid the $1,000 contribution and later repaid Campbell’s husband in cash at Baugh’s direction.

Last July, the assemblyman aggressively attacked Traxler’s credibility in a 51-page analysis of his testimony, saying “without question, Traxler lied at every available opportunity and blamed the circumstances . . . on Baugh.”

When first questioned, Traxler admitted lying to investigators to protect Baugh.

Baugh, who faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, also complained to the grand jury about the tactics of Capizzi’s prosecutors but was told to take the matter to the attorney general, according to grand jury foreman Donald Wecker.

Also indicted with Baugh were Maureen Werft, Baugh’s chief of staff, and Rhonda J. Carmony, the former campaign manager who is now Rohrabacher’s fiance. Werft avoided trial on felony charges by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of voting illegally in the special election.

Carmony is scheduled for trial Monday on three felony counts of helping the illegal circulation of election petitions for Campbell.