O.C.’s New D.A. Vows to Speed Cases to Trial

Seeking to cut the time it takes to bring criminal cases to trial, Orange County’s incoming district attorney on Tuesday outlined a sweeping reorganization of the office aimed at moving prosecutors out of administrative jobs and into the courtroom.

The announcement comes less than a month before Anthony J. Rackauckas is scheduled to take office and a year after a Price Waterhouse audit found that Orange County has the highest ratio of case filings to prosecutors of any urban county in California--400 to 1.

Rackauckas, a former judge who succeeds longtime Dist. Atty. Mike Capizzi, said his goal is to reduce the length of felony cases by three to six months.

“It is not unusual for a case to take nine months to a year,” he said. “Frankly, that is distressing to me. . . . I would usually not let cases go for more than six months.”

He plans to cut the number of administrators from 25 to 15--moving the remainder into front-line duties. Rackauckas, who unveiled the changes to office staffers Tuesday, described it as the equivalent of “putting more cops on the street.”

The plan met with early praise from both prosecutors and some defense attorneys, though many said they will reserve final judgment until the reorganization is complete.

“There were too many tiers of management,” said Mike Jacobs, a senior trial deputy with the Homicide Unit. “He is basically getting rid of a tier and giving more responsibilities to the [immediate] supervisors.”

Al Stokke, a prominent Orange County defense attorney who has sparred with Capizzi, criticized the current management structure for being “top heavy” and said Rackauckas’ changes are a step in the right direction.

“Too many decisions were being set by concrete policies from high above,” Stokke said. “This is going to get the decision-making person closer to the cases, and they will be able to react much more quickly.”

Capizzi, who is stepping down after nine years as district attorney, said Tuesday he hasn’t seen Rackauckas’ plan and therefore could not comment on its merits.

“I am very proud of our record and very proud of our numbers,” said Capizzi, who opted not to seek reelection and was defeated in the Republican primary for attorney general. “If he thinks he has a way to improve it, he should, by all means, try to do so.”

Rackauckas said that as a Superior Court judge, he felt criminal cases took too long snaking through his courtroom. After studying the issue over the last few months, he concluded that prosecutors are handling too many cases, causing unacceptable delays.

Proposition 115, the “speedy trial initiative” co-authored by Rackauckas and approved by state voters in 1991, gave prosecutors more authority to speed up criminal trial and cuts delays. Rackauckas complained that the Orange County district attorney’s office has not taken advantage of the measure.

But Capizzi defended his track record, saying most of trial delays are caused not by prosecutors but by defense attorneys.

The office now has four assistant district attorneys, who answer to Capizzi, and 21 administrative managers, who directly oversee the county’s nearly 250 prosecutors. Under the new structure, the two layers of management will be folded into one, consisting of 15 assistant district attorneys.

Capizzi’s tenure has been marked by criticism of his aggressive prosecutions of county officials caught up in the 1994 bankruptcy as well as several Republican Party operatives accused of election law violations a year later.

In 1997, the Orange County Grand Jury commissioned an in-depth operational audit of the office conducted by Price Waterhouse. The study was generally positive, praising the office for its high conviction rate.

Orange County maintained a 95% felony conviction rate, the audit said, even though its prosecutors handled more case filings than any major California county. Auditors cited the high ratio as an indication that the office was operating efficiently.

The report criticized the office for hamstringing prosecutors by not allowing they to be involved in plea bargains. Judges and defense attorneys still arrange reduced charges in exchange for guilty pleas, but without the prosecution’s participation or approval.

On Tuesday, Rackauckas said he will change that policy too.

“Capizzi set procedures that are very rigid,” he said. “I expect the deputy D.A.s to be professional and use their best judgment in consultation with their more experienced supervisors. But I think it should be their decision in most cases.”

Rackauckas said he will announce who his top deputies will be when he takes office Jan. 4.

All recent promotions made by Capizzi will be reviewed, he said.

He wants to make “sure that the best of the people are getting those promotions,” he said. “If they don’t have sufficient experience, we’re going to give them an opportunity to get additional experience.”