Carmony Case a Mistrial After Jurors Deadlock

A judge declared a mistrial Friday in the felony trial of Republican campaign aide Rhonda Carmony after jurors deliberating her fate for three days declared themselves deadlocked in favor of conviction.

Carmony, 27, didn’t comment as she left the courtroom with her attorney, Creighton Laz.

“Imagine sitting in trial for five weeks and getting this kind of a decision,” Laz said. “We thought we had a good chance to win.”

Assistant Dist. Atty. Brent Romney said his office will decide by Aug. 1, the date Carmony was ordered back to court, whether to retry the three election law felony charges. He said the fact the jury split 10-2, 10-2 and 9-3 in favor of conviction on the three felony counts was a strong argument for a retrial.

“We’re going to do everything we can to determine if it’s reasonably possible to reach a verdict in a retrial,” he said.

Prosecutors allege that Carmony violated election laws to help Laurie Campbell, a Democratic spoiler candidate, qualify for a pivotal November 1995 special election while hiding the involvement of several GOP aides. Carmony was charged with conspiracy and falsely making and filing nomination papers for Campbell.

Juror Chris Aragon, 35, a United Parcel Service package driver from Mission Viejo, said he believed Carmony was guilty and was frustrated by the jury’s inability to reach a verdict.

He disputed defense arguments during the trial that Carmony played a minor role in the scheme, which Laz argued was orchestrated by Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) and his chief of staff, Jeff Flint, at the behest of wealthy GOP donors who wanted to boost the odds of a Republican victory.

“It doesn’t matter. If you’re a player, you’re a player,” Aragon said. “Whether she was a mastermind or not, she was a player.”

The main holdout, jurors said, was a psychiatrist who “did not want to believe that [Carmony] had anything to do with it.”

Jurors appeared weary after announcing their decision. The panel began its task anew Wednesday after about three hours of deliberation, following the removal of a juror who apparently was overheard making an unfavorable remark about Carmony.

Most jurors declined comment and quickly boarded an elevator after leaving the 10th-floor courtroom. A few stayed to talk with reporters.

Juror Jeff McMullens, 45, said deliberations got heated at times and voices were raised as the jury tried to reach a consensus.

“There wasn’t anything that pointed, for some of the jurors, at a guilty verdict,” said McMullens, a building inspector from Garden Grove who voted guilty.

“I kind of got a feeling that what went on [in the election] is probably practiced all the time and that this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary,” he said. “I think Rhonda and the players on the bottom of this whole thing were just pawns. . . . I believe that the law was broken, but I don’t think that anyone really believed that it was a serious crime.”

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Juror Norman Spriggs, a 37-year-old Santa Ana man, was among the majority who favored conviction. He said he would have liked to have heard Carmony testify but nonetheless believed she was involved in election wrongdoing “from square one.”

“They say that’s the way the [politics] game is played, but personally, I’m very disappointed with the way the game is played,” Spriggs said.

According to Spriggs, one of the holdouts said, “ ‘I don’t feel sorry for her or pity her, I just don’t have enough evidence.’ ”

Carmony’s fiance, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who sat with the defendant outside the courtroom all day Friday, blasted Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi for bringing the charges.

“They’ve spent a million dollars and wasted tens of thousands of dollars of prosecutor time for something that shouldn’t have been charged in the first place,” Rohrabacher said. “It indicates this man with all of his money and power as D.A. couldn’t get a conviction.”

No matter what happens next, Rohrabacher said, he and Carmony plan to go ahead with their Aug. 20 wedding in the French Pyrenees.

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The election was crucial for Republicans intent on recalling maverick Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) and replacing her with a Republican loyal to Pringle, while maintaining the Assembly’s GOP majority. Allen had become speaker with the help of longtime Democratic Speaker Willie Brown.

Republicans worried that four GOP candidates in the race would split the vote unless another candidate was recruited to challenge the lone Democrat on the ballot, according to testimony. The concern was greatest among donors of an influential political action committee providing the major funding for the recall.

Carmony declared her innocence but didn’t testify during the five-week trial.

The case galvanized Republican conservatives, who accused Capizzi of grandstanding by filing the charges and retaliated against him by placing a no-confidence vote against him at the state GOP convention. Capizzi filed a second felony complaint against eventual election winner Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), alleging he misreported thousands of dollars of campaign contributions and loans.

Capizzi, considering a statewide run for attorney general, recently condemned the “dirty-trick, fraternity boy” mentality of the decoy Democrat scheme. He said the same mentality created the Watergate scandal that devastated the reputation of the national Republican Party 20 years ago.

Baugh echoed Rohrabacher’s anger, arriving at the courthouse after the jury’s decision was announced.

“To the D.A., this is a poker match and he’s gambling with taxpayer money, but for Rhonda, this is her life,” said Baugh, who awaits a July 18 hearing to decide if Capizzi’s office will be allowed to pursue its complaint against him.

Judge Francisco P. Briseno, while complimenting the jury on its diligence, said the case was fairly simple from a legal standpoint. However, it turned on which witnesses and which portions of often-conflicting testimony were most believable.

Jurors spent most of Thursday afternoon having testimony by Campbell read back by a clerk. Though a prosecution witness, Campbell initially balked at testifying and then engaged in an often heated direct examination with Romney.

Campbell insisted during the trial that she never talked to Carmony about her campaign. She said she was told by a second GOP aide, Jeff Gibson, to falsely sign candidacy papers swearing she had collected her own nomination signatures. She eventually was removed from the ballot by a Sacramento judge.

Three other GOP aides pleaded guilty last year to single misdemeanors for collecting signatures for Campbell but failing to sign as circulators. Mark Denny, an aide to Pringle; Gibson, a worker on the Allen recall for Pringle; and Baugh campaign aide Richard Martin testified that the scheme to assist Campbell was orchestrated by Carmony.

Romney declined Friday to comment on whether additional charges would be filed against Flint or Campbell. Flint was named an unindicted co-conspirator in earlier prosecution court papers.

Another candidate in the race, Democrat Linda Moulton Patterson, said she was saddened that the jury didn’t convict Carmony. Moulton Patterson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor last year for having falsely signed statements that she collected all of her own nomination signatures for the race.

“The message it sends is that people don’t have to take responsibility for breaking the law,” she said. “This was all about deceiving the voters. This win-at-any-cost mentality is the reason so many people don’t have faith in the political system.”

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Greg Hernandez, Thao Hua and Davan Maharaj.