D.A.’s Son Guilty in New Drug Case

For the second time since his father was elected, the son of Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas has been arrested on drug-related charges.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies picked up Anthony C. Rackauckas about 4 a.m. Sunday after finding him asleep and nude with about two grams of cocaine and a pipe in his truck outside Irvine Park in Orange, according to a police report.

The prosecutor’s son pleaded guilty Tuesday to possession charges and was placed in a “diversion” program that will allow his conviction to be erased if he attends counseling and remains drug-free for 18 months.

“I love my son and want to support him as a father would and help him get through this,” the district attorney said in a statement. “I hope he succeeds in rehabilitating himself through the diversion program.”

Rackauckas stressed that his 31-year-old son will get no special treatment. “When I found out about this, I immediately turned the case over to the attorney general and haven’t in any way interfered with the judicial process or asked for any favoritism,” he said.

This is not the first time Rackauckas’ son has been in trouble with the law, court records show. He attended counseling to clear a 1998 marijuana arrest in Orange County. According to court records, he has $31,000 in outstanding warrants in Los Angeles County for drug and traffic charges.

The younger Rackauckas’ wife, Cindy, was arrested in April on suspicion of drunk driving and misdemeanor hit-and-run, according to court records. She is scheduled to appear in court Friday. The case is also being handled by the state attorney general’s office to avoid a conflict of interest.

The prosecutor’s son, held on $10,000 bail at the main jail in Santa Ana, declined a request to be interviewed for this story. He and his wife live in Riverside, according to court records.

An Orange County judge declared the son indigent Tuesday and assigned a deputy public defender to defend him. Rackauckas’ son works a self-employed plumber and earns $1,000 to $2,000 per month, according to his application for the public defender.

Mike Murphy, the deputy attorney general who handled the son’s case, said Tuesday’s resolution was fair. “If they qualify for diversion, that’s what we do. It was the normal course in a case like this,” he said.