A Lesson for Prosecutors

An appeals court this week threw out the conviction of former Assistant Treasurer Matthew R. Raabe and for the moment, at least, reopened old wounds of Orange County’s 1994 bankruptcy. It also has spotlighted the legacy of former Dist. Atty. Mike Capizzi, who again has run afoul of his bankruptcy nemesis, the 4th District Court of Appeal.

Raabe was never accused or even suspected of taking money for himself, but his 1997 conviction of skimming millions from an investment pool to conceal the county’s investment strategy was a rare victory for the district attorney’s flagging bankruptcy probe. But the appeals court kept unraveling Capizzi’s effort, dubbed by prosecutors “Operation Noah’s Ark.” It did so again this week, ruling, as it had in the separate 1997 misconduct case against the auditor-controller, that Capizzi had a conflict of interest. The appeals court also dismissed charges against two county supervisors, both gone from office.

Meanwhile, Capizzi’s longtime penchant for political prosecutions got him in trouble with Republican leaders, and he paid the price when he ran for state attorney general and, again, for Superior Court earlier this year.

The bankruptcy was a rarity, but in future cases where the offices of local district attorneys might have a fiscal stake in the outcome of prosecutions, there is little doubt they will be expected to step aside to remove any doubt of conflict. It’s a lesson for local prosecutors and another setback for Capizzi.

Yet none of this should alter the larger lesson of the bankruptcy about a breach of public trust that took place in the office of then-Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron. It was there that Raabe served.