Bottom Line on Raabe’s Sentence

Robert Citron’s lawyer said his client suffered from diminished mental capacity as the Orange County bankruptcy unfolded in 1994. Matthew Raabe’s lawyer said his client lapsed into a deep depression afterward.

Those, ladies and gentlemen, were your treasurer and assistant treasurer, respectively, as the county’s investment pool ran aground. Not exactly the Twin Towers.

On Friday, the curtain finally falls on this local drama when Raabe, who prosecutors say conceived the illegal plan to divert interest money of investment-pool participants, will be sentenced. Late last year, Citron got a one-year jail sentence but has been allowed to serve it by working days for the sheriff’s office and spending evenings at home. Considering he pleaded to several felonies that carried a maximum of 14 years in jail, you may be wondering what the definition of “sentence” actually is.

In a mild irony, Raabe will be sentenced in the same week that a new “Consumer Confidence Index” poll shows Orange County residents are more optimistic about the economy than at any point since the survey was first taken in 1986. It’s a safe leap from there to say that most people probably don’t think of the bankruptcy very often.

So, what to do with Raabe, the former heir-apparent in the treasurer’s office?

Ever the elusive goal, justice will be difficult to achieve.

I say that because ever since the Citron sentencing, I’ve had a hard time justifying a stiffer sentence for Raabe than for his boss. And that’s even conceding that Raabe probably did come up with the idea to divert the funds. The rub is that Citron either had to know what was going on, or should have. Either way, how can it be fair that Raabe goes to prison while Citron goes home every night?

Admittedly, I wimp out at crunch time when it comes to white-collar crime, especially when the money being skimmed doesn’t go into the skimmer’s pocket. Raabe and Citron may have wanted to enhance their careers, but no one has charged they pocketed any cash.

But they did cause much chaos and disruption to a number of people, and so here’s the question we’re left with: What’s the point of identifying acts like these as crimes if people who commit them don’t serve sentences for them? How does going to work each day and coming home at night even remotely relate to serving a sentence for committing felonies?

Even though the Board of Supervisors and others say they’ve learned a valuable lesson from the bankruptcy, there’s still the very real matter of whether people should go to jail over it. Discounting Citron’s paltry sentence, Raabe looks to be the only one still with a chance at hard time.

Is that fair?

Two jurors who heard the Raabe case last spring have no misgivings about him going to jail.

“I think he should do the time,” the first juror said. “It’s kind of like somebody going out and robbing a bank. If they get caught, they’re going to do time, no matter what.”

The juror said he has the impression from what he’s read in the newspapers, however, that Raabe is “going to walk scot-free. I’d be surprised if he does time.”

The jury had no trouble convicting Raabe, he said. “Look, he’s a CPA. He knew he had to uphold the law, and he didn’t. He knew exactly what he was doing.”

The other juror agreed. “I don’t think it should be 13 years, basically because Citron got off with a slap on the hand. But I do think that he should serve some time. How much more or less [than Citron] is up to the judge. I feel he knew what he was doing was wrong and kind of feel he was doing it to further his own career. . . .”

That juror said she wouldn’t be surprised if Citron had been more culpable than he let on when testifying against Raabe. Still, she said, Raabe wasn’t a fall guy. “If he doesn’t get a few years, he should spend a substantial amount of years doing public service. Even if Citron was starting to go a little senile, Raabe knew what he was doing was wrong. We could tell it, and we were just everyday people.”

As Citron’s sentencing judge showed, much discretion exists in these matters. While I don’t believe for a minute that the district attorney’s office really wants Raabe to serve the seven years it is recommending, will they at least show any outrage if he gets the same sentence as Citron?

Probably not. No one’s heart seems to be in this post-bankruptcy stuff.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com