Baugh Prosecution Was a Persecution

Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno recently ruled that Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) has been the target of an unfair prosecution by Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael Capizzi.

The judge kicked Capizzi off the Baugh case and has sent the matter on a course that will probably result in its outright dismissal, or a finding by the Fair Political Practices Commission of a minor infraction. The latter would most likely result in a small and reasonable fine for the assemblyman.

When all is said and done, Mr. Baugh will be owed some serious apologies, not the least of which should come from the Los Angeles Times. It was the repeated misreporting by The Times that created the false public impression that Scott Baugh was involved in an illegal campaign maneuver that led to his indictment. Story after story, dripping with misleading rhetoric, implied it was illegal for Republicans to help Laurie Campbell, a Democrat, get on the ballot in a special election four years ago. It was not.

At the time, I begged Times reporter Peter Warren to make clear in his stories that it is perfectly legal for people in one party to help someone of another party for any reason. Instead, this all-important fact was (for the most part) left out, creating a politically charged false impression that Baugh and others were involved in a criminal conspiracy.

Trying to exploit this false impression, Capizzi rushed into the spotlight in a vain attempt to earn political points by hyping this case into the local equivalent of Watergate. In essence, Capizzi used a perfectly legal maneuver on the part of some Republicans to justify an expensive, all-out effort to find any mistake, even minor errors, and turn them into felonies. In his zeal, Capizzi and his subordinates lied, pressured others to change their truthful testimony, knowingly kept evidence of innocence from the grand jury, and even threatened to reveal derogatory personal information about a judge who was ruling against him. This sad tale is the quintessential story of a politically motivated prosecutor out of control and out of line.

The errors Baugh made in his first campaign never justified the criminal charges hurled at him. They were minor mistakes and, compared to those made by veteran politicians (including paperwork errors on Capizzi’s own campaign documents), hardly worthy of the hoopla orchestrated by the district attorney. Yet, Scott Baugh and my wife, Rhonda, are the first victims ever to stand and fight Capizzi’s selective and abusive prosecutions.

Briseno’s ruling is the first step toward setting straight the injustice of the Baugh case. Nevertheless, Scott has paid a heavy price financially, professionally and personally. He may have handily won his last two elections, but he was the victim of an ugly, vicious and totally unjustified campaign barrage. Haydee Tillotson and her supporters should be ashamed of themselves for their grotesque, personal attacks on Scott. The voters showed a higher level of commitment to the fundamental American principle that a person, even a candidate for public office, is innocent until proven guilty. The latest election results suggest that democracy has worked to correct the political imbalance created by lies and misinformation, and to rid our system of self-aggrandizing bullies.

Now it’s time for someone to step up and say “I’m sorry” to Scott for the personal abuse he and his family have had to endure. Don’t hold your breath waiting.

Editor’s note: The State Bar closed an investigation into Capizzi’s prosecution of Baugh in September 1997, saying it found no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct. Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren also closed an inquiry into the complaint.