Gaming Alleged in O.C. Office of Public Defender

The county’s top public defender said Wednesday that he is cooperating with prosecutors investigating alleged illegal gambling activities in his office but discounted the likelihood that the probe would uncover any serious wrongdoing.

“Like at many business and workplaces, there is apparent evidence of people placing bets in football pools,” Public Defender Carl Holmes said. “We are dealing with those issues.”

The district attorney’s office is looking into allegations by a former public defender’s investigator that co-workers were collecting bets, posting gambling sheets and regularly contacting bookmakers. One of the employees being investigated is Deputy Dist. Atty. Daryl Dworakowski, who worked as a deputy public defender until last year.

“Mr. Dworakowski was an employee of the public defender’s office during the period of the alleged gambling,” said Maurice L. Evans, chief assistant district attorney. “If there is evidence that Mr. Dworakowski was involved in this activity, there will be appropriate review and action.”

Dworakowski could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Evans said he remains on the job.

The gambling allegations were made by 47-year-old Teri Ortal, who said she was fired from her job as an investigator for the public defender’s office after she notified her supervisors about alleged bookmaking and inflated caseload statistics.

Ortal said two investigators collected bets, ranging from $5 to $1,000, for as many as 20 employees in the office. She said they used county telephones, fax machines and cars to conduct the activity.

“There were about 20 people who did the betting very openly,” Ortal said. “Some of them were very influential and they covered for each other. But it has to be said that there are about 300 good people in that office who were not involved.”

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Ortal said gambling sheets hung from the office wall and that the level of betting that took place was far beyond the casual office football pool.

“This was bookmaking,” she said. “People from outside the office would call and participate.”

In a lawsuit filed last month in Orange County Superior Court, Ortal said the alleged activities were “hampering the effectiveness of the office” and impairing her ability to do her job.

Ortal’s superiors maintained that she used up to 30 hours a week of county time to operate a real estate computer software company. She was fired in March 1996 for “gross misuse of county time” and “misuse of county position for personal gain.” Ortal denies the charges.

The gambling probe is part of a large-scale investigation of the biggest known bookmaking operation in the history of Orange County, Evans said.

That investigation led to the arrest of 10 suspects last month on charges of bookmaking and illegal wagering. The bookmaking investigation continues, and additional arrests are expected, authorities said.

Among those arrested last month was Decourcy Wright Graham, a 55-year-old Corona del Mar man who Ortal alleges accepted bets from two public defender investigators who placed them on behalf of several co-workers.

The two investigators “would talk to Graham from the office,” Ortal said. “They would fax sheets back and forth using county fax machines on county time. They were using the telephones and county cars.”

One of the investigators who Ortal alleges was involved was John Depko, who participated in the investigation that resulted in her firing. Depko’s attorney, Jennifer Keller, slammed Ortal and the district attorney’s office Wednesday.

“It’s just amazing to me,” Keller said. “I can’t think of any explanation as to why they are pursuing this other than that these are public defenders and they are anxious to get a trophy on the wall.”

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Keller called the situation “ridiculously overblown” and said betting pools have been common throughout county offices, including in the district attorney’s.

Keller described Ortal as “a totally discredited human being.”

Ortal said she first met with district attorney’s investigators in 1995, a year before she was fired. At that time, she provided them with documents and photographs she had collected.

Although the two offices regularly square off in court, Evans said he sees no reason why his office shouldn’t perform the investigation. He said state law obligates the office to look into the matter.

“At this point in time, we see no conflict of interest regarding the investigation of the public defender’s office,” Evans said. “We feel that when we are conducting a major investigation, we will follow the leads to wherever they take us. That is what we are doing in this case.”

Keller disagrees.

“I’m sensing a real desire to get public defenders and that is why it is wildly inappropriate for them to be conducting this investigation,” she said.

Holmes also said the matter has been overblown and described Ortal as a disgruntled former employee.

“We are nonetheless looking at these allegations seriously and intend to follow through with the investigation,” he said. “I find it regrettable that these allegations cloud the fine work done by this office and its staff, who will not compromise their efforts on behalf of their clients.”

Ortal denies that she is disgruntled and points out that she made the allegations long before she was fired.