4th Judge Bows Out of Case Against GOP Aide

When an attorney for GOP political aide Rhonda J. Carmony filed a pretrial motion a few months ago, he simply asked that Dist. Atty. Michael Capizzi be disqualified from prosecuting his client on election law violations.

But the recusal motion has had an apparently unintended effect: So far four judges have been removed or disqualified themselves from ruling on the issue. The fourth, Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel, removed himself Monday, giving no explanation for his decision.

Fasel, however, cited a law allowing a judge to be disqualified when “the judge believes his or her recusal would further the interest of justice,” and when “a person aware of the facts might reasonably entertain a doubt that the judge would be able to be impartial.”

After Fasel’s recusal, Presiding Judge Theodore E. Millard appointed a new judge, Kazuharu Makino of Superior Court in Fullerton, to decide the matter.

“We’re running out of judges,” Millard quipped at one point.

The appointment of a fifth judge will almost certainly delay the scheduled March 17 trial of Carmony, who is charged with three felonies for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to put a decoy Democratic candidate on the ballot in a special election in the fall of 1995, using petitions that were improperly and fraudulently certified.

Carmony, the former campaign manager and now fiancee of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), was accompanied to court Monday by the congressman, who sported a new clean-shaven look.

The charges against Carmony arose out of the 1995 election victory of Republican Scott Baugh of Huntington Beach, who replaced former Assembly Speaker Doris Allen in the 67th Assembly District seat. Baugh, too, faces felony charges for allegedly falsifying campaign donation reports that would have shown his association with the decoy candidate if properly reported. Both Baugh and Carmony have denied wrongdoing.

Carmony’s attorney, Creighton B. Laz of Costa Mesa, filed a motion last month asking the Superior Court to require that the district attorney’s office be replaced as prosecutor by the state attorney general.

Laz alleged, among other things, that Capizzi has prosecuted her for her political associations and to enhance his own political career. The district attorney’s office has denied the allegation.

The motion took an unexpected turn when it came up for hearing before Judge James L. Smith, the judge originally assigned to preside over Carmony’s trial. During a hearing, prosecutors raised a 13-year-old incident that they said posed a possible conflict of interest for Smith.

After Smith disqualified himself from hearing the recusal motion, Superior Court Judge David. O. Carter, who supervises the court’s master criminal calendar, said prosecutors were using the incident in an attempt to “muscle” Smith off the case.

After those statements, prosecutors successfully asked Carter to disqualify himself from hearing the motion.

Millard, the presiding judge, referred the matter to Judge Richard Weatherspoon last week, but reversed that decision, sending the matter to Fasel instead.

Fasel, whose courtroom is located next to Smith’s on the eleventh floor of the courthouse, wasted little time Monday morning in returning the matter to Millard.

Millard said in court Monday that Makino was not likely to have a conflict of interest in hearing the recusal motion.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Brent Romney, the prosecutors in the case, said he was happy the matter was nearing a resolution.

* CAPIZZI CLEARED

Attorney general finds no evidence of D.A. wrongdoing. B5