Cooley Announces Staff Changes on 1st Day in Office

On his first full day on the job Tuesday, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley announced highly anticipated changes in his executive management staff.

The appointees include two holdovers from the administration of former Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, career prosecutors, former ranking members of the district attorney’s office and a former Municipal Court judge.

The job of second-in-command went to Curt Livesay, who will be interim chief deputy. Livesay, who has 35 years experience as a prosecutor and defense attorney, also served as chief deputy under former Dist. Atty. John Van de Kamp.

The appointment that drew the most questions at the news conference was that of Senior Trial Deputy Lael Rubin as special counsel.

Rubin will oversee Cooley’s promised changes in the enforcement of California’s three-strikes law.

Rubin prosecuted the McMartin Pre-School case, an unsuccessful three-year prosecution that was the most costly in county history. The highly publicized case changed the way law enforcement officers across the country question children who may have been sexually abused.

But Rubin said her entire career should not be summed up by one case.

“I concluded my work on the McMartin case more than 10 years ago,” she said. She noted that she had won a murder conviction just a few weeks ago.

The district attorney said he and Rubin will present a three-strikes plan in 10 days.

Cooley named retired Montebello Police Chief George Stephen Simonian as chief of the district attorney’s bureau of investigation.

He appointed three assistant district attorneys:

* Former Inglewood Municipal Judge Lawrence E. Mason will be in charge of line operations. Mason was a deputy district attorney from 1975 to 1997 and legal advisor to the Los Angeles County Grand Jury from 1989 to 1991.

* Head Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Bozanich will direct special operations. Bozanich, who joined the office in 1971, most recently ran the south juvenile division.

* Assistant Dist. Atty. Sharon Matsumoto will keep her job as head of administration. She began the job in 1998.

Cooley also named eight bureau directors:

* Jacquelyn Lacey will be in charge of central operations. Lacey joined the office in 1986. She has been part of the hate crimes suppression unit for the past year.

* Head Deputy Dist. Atty. Curt Hazell will direct special operations. Hazell has been with the office since 1976.

* David Guthman will oversee fraud and prosecutions. He has been with the office since 1977. During the past two years, Guthman has served as director of the bureau of management and budget.

* Deputy Dist. Atty. Janice Maurizi will direct Region I of branch and area operations. She has been with the office since 1984.

* Deputy Dist. Atty. John Allen will remain as head of Region II of branch and area operations. Allen has been with the district attorney’s office since 1983.

* Former journalist Joseph Scott, who helped run Cooley’s campaign, will serve as director of communications.

* William R. Mangan, a commander in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, will direct the Bureau of Management and Budget.

* Former journalist Carol Baker will remain as acting director of crime prevention and youth services. She has served in that job since 1998.