Raabe Pays a Stiff Price for Forcing a Trial

Although he wasn’t the most notorious figure in Orange County’s $1.64-billion bankruptcy, former county Assistant Treasurer Matthew R. Raabe received by far the sternest punishment.

Why? Because defendants who plead guilty and cooperate with authorities are often rewarded with more favorable sentences than those who exercise their right to a trial and are convicted.

Former County Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron, whose risky investments caused the financial collapse, pleaded guilty to six felony charges just months after the county filed for bankruptcy in December 1994 and cooperated with investigators. He was ultimately sentenced to one year in a county work-release program that allows him to spend his nights at home.

Raabe, Citron’s assistant at the treasurer’s office, on Friday received a three-year prison sentence. Unlike Citron, Raabe did not cooperate with prosecutors and demanded a trial by jury, which last May found him guilty of five felony charges.

Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey stressed the difference in the way the two men reacted in the aftermath of the bankruptcy when handing down Raabe’s sentence.

“Mr. Citron, for whatever reason, chose to throw himself on the mercy of the court,” Dickey said. “It’s always a factor if the defendant makes an early acknowledgment of guilt.”

Prosecutors echoed a similar theme. Raabe “doesn’t have the mitigating factors that Citron did,” said Matthew Anderson, senior deputy district attorney who prosecuted Raabe. “Citron was very cooperative and truthful with us.”

Legal experts said that Dickey and Anderson’s reasoning is common in criminal cases, and that defendants who cooperate with prosecutors often are “rewarded” for saving time and money.

“By the plea, you are saving the state a lot of money,” said Robert A. Pugsley, a professor at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles. “It would never be formally spoken, but it’s clearly understood that by forgoing a 6th Amendment right [with a guilty plea], you are saving the state the trouble and expense of going to trial.”

Pugsley said the judge followed an implicit understanding in the legal system that “you can’t claim you’re innocent and expect the system to give you lenient treatment on sentencing.”

David W. Wiechert, who represented Citron, agreed that his client’s cooperation with authorities was critical to the relatively light sentence eventually imposed last year by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger.

“Judge Czuleger, when he sentenced Mr. Citron, said it would have been an easy state prison case but for Mr. Citron’s cooperation,” Wiechert said. “Mr. Raabe did not have the cooperation factor in his favor when he was sentenced.”

At his sentencing, Raabe did apologize for his actions. “I was not as careful as I should have been, and for that I am truly sorry,” he said. “I hope that some day [the people of Orange County] will ultimately find it in their hearts to forgive me.”

But the acknowledgment did not sway Dickey in rejecting Raabe’s request to avoid prison time.

“I know there will be people who will think you were not treated fairly,” Dickey said. “You obviously received the most severe sentence. When you handle public funds, you have to have a higher standard. The public has a right to expect [its money] will be handled meticulously.”

Raabe’s attorney and others said the stern sentence seemed unfair when compared to Citron’s.

“Raabe is being made a scapegoat,” said Carole Walters, a leader of the Committees of Correspondence government watchdog group. “Why is he the only one going to jail?”

In a pre-sentencing report prepared by the state Department of Corrections and submitted to the court, a staff psychologist said Raabe feels guilty because he had let many people down. Raabe continued to blame Citron for the bankruptcy, describing his former boss as “extremely autocratic” and saying he was “quite arrogant with other people’s money,” according to the report.

The 10-page report said Raabe adapted a tunnel-vision mentality in order to achieve professional success. But instead of attaining success, his actions resulted in “the abandonment of professional ethics, deceit, betrayal of public trust and violation of criminal law.”

Based on his lack of a prior criminal history and the fact that he did not seem to gain financially from the crime, a state correctional counselor recommended probation.

But the report also pointed out that Raabe refused to acknowledge that he knew at the time that the fund diversions were illegal.

Also contributing to this report was Times correspondent Jeff Kass.