O.C. Grand Jury Begins In-Depth Look at District Attorney’s Office

The Orange County Grand Jury has opened a wide-ranging examination of the district attorney’s office, which has been mired in internal strife and various allegations of wrongdoing and conflicts of interest for more than one year.

Several current and former prosecutors said they have received subpoenas requiring them to testify before the panel’s criminal justice committee, which evaluates the efficiency of the county’s justice system and issues reports to the Board of Supervisors.

Sources who have been interviewed by the grand jury said the inquiry appears to be focused on a variety of allegations that have dogged the office. Critics have accused Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas of giving favorable treatment in several cases to political allies and contributors. Last month, Rackauckas agreed to dissolve a nonprofit charity he said he formed to help troubled youth but had come under scrutiny by the state attorney general’s office.

Rackauckas has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and blamed any turmoil in his office on political adversaries.

The grand jury has been taking testimony for about a month.

Christopher Evans, a former top assistant to Rackauckas, said he has been questioned about Rackauckas privately by state attorney general investigators and in front of the grand jury.

“I have received a subpoena and I’ve cooperated fully. I was admonished not to discuss questions and answers,” said Evans, a veteran homicide prosecutor who left the office in 1999.

Rackauckas declined to comment on the investigation. But a district attorney supervisor who asked not to be named described the inquiry as a “routine audit” and noted that the grand jury in the past has studied the public defender’s office, Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office, most recently in 1997.

“We assume the office will receive a good evaluation,” the supervisor said. “This is a normal procedure.”

But others disagree. Brent Romney, a former Orange County prosecutor who is a professor at Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, said it is rare for a grand jury examining a government agency to rely on subpoenas to compel testimony or seek assistance from the state attorney general’s office.

Romney said the 1997 grand jury examination focused on the conviction rates of the district attorney’s office. The grand jury hired a consulting firm to conduct the study, and no witnesses were placed under oath, said Romney, who was a top district attorney’s official at the time.

“There’s more to this, most likely, than a routine audit,” he said.

The new grand jury probe comes as Rackauckas wages a heated reelection campaign. Prosecutors in the office voted last month to endorse veteran prosecutor Wally Wade instead of their boss, the first time the prosecutors have failed to endorse an incumbent district attorney.

Wade has attacked Rackauckas’ integrity throughout the campaign, accusing him of using his position to reward those who supported his candidacy. The grand jury probe was “terribly embarrassing” to the office, he said.

Adam Probolsky, a spokesman for the Rackauckas campaign, said Wade has mischaracterized the grand jury investigation “to feed his negative campaign.”

In most instances the grand jury uses district attorney’s officials to help with its inquiries.

Because the probe involves the district attorney’s office, the grand jury is using a deputy state attorney general to ask witnesses about Rackauckas’ role in various cases, including a consumer protection case involving billionaire developer George Argyros, the new U.S. ambassador to Spain.

Rackauckas was criticized earlier this year for ordering prosecutors to withdraw the consumer protection lawsuit filed against a company owned by Argyros, who contributed to Rackauckas’ campaign and was considered his political confidant.

The district attorney eventually declared a conflict of interest and handed the case to the attorney general’s office, which negotiated a settlement in which Argyros’ company must repay security deposits it withheld from hundreds of tenants at its Orange County apartment buildings.