Ex-Prosecutor Will Make Case for Lord

Once the No.-2 power in the district attorney’s office, Maury Evans was also a force in the Orange County Bar Assn. whose friendships ranged from Supreme Court justices to defense attorneys across the courtroom table.

So what happens to you once local fame and power have been depleted by retirement? Evans, 64, has taken a road I doubt many tough prosecutors have given a thought about traveling.

He’s in seminary school.

Evans is headed for the ministry. Maybe not in the standard preacher-from-the-pulpit fashion. Ministries take many trails. All Evans knows is that he feels compelled to head this direction. He won’t worry for now what the next step might be.

I can think of lots of professions that might be compatible with a switch to the ministry. Career prosecutor isn’t one that comes to mind. But Evans didn’t find it as unusual as I did.

“I do believe that people have to be responsible for their own actions,” he said. “But once people I prosecuted paid their debt to society, they deserved the same consideration as anyone else.”

This will be Evans’ third career. He was an FBI agent before spending the last 27 years as a prosecutor.

When Mike Capizzi followed Cecil Hicks as district attorney in 1990, he appointed Evans his chief deputy. But Evans also worked on statewide committees on judicial reform and helped lead the local bar association to take a stand on issues such as gun control and the homeless. One of his closest friends was the late Ron Butler, the longtime public defender.

But as Capizzi was controversial, Evans, too, chalked up a few enemies as Capizzi’s most ardent defender. Evans’ departure from the office two years ago didn’t go as gracefully as he might have hoped.

Evans knew his days were numbered when Tony Rackauckas got elected to the office Capizzi was leaving. Rackauckas had vowed to put his own people in top positions, which he did. Evans had already decided to retire, but privately friends said he was rankled that none of the new people seemed interested in a smooth transition.

Unexpected Turn

I figured Evans would simply move on to a different role in the legal system, become somebody’s advocate somewhere within the courthouse.

But things took a turn even he did not expect.

With others at their church, Calvary Chapel of Placentia (which is actually in Anaheim), Evans and his wife, Peggy, took a retirement trip to Israel, which fascinated them. Evans later took another church-related trip, to Ireland.

But perhaps most influential was a recent trip Evans took with a group to his church’s associate church just outside Havana.

Despite the area’s tremendous poverty, he was moved by the people’s spirit.

“It was a most depressed area,” Evans said. “The cars were all from the ‘50s, and a lot of places didn’t even have running water. But the people, they were just tremendous, so warm to us.”

It helped convince Evans he could better serve the poor beyond the walls of the courthouse. But a couple of other things left impressions on him.

“I was with someone else and we were walking through one of those Indian casinos,” Evans said, reflecting. “I saw all these people my age, just row after row, pouring money into slot machines. You know what? There wasn’t a happy face in the bunch. I’m not against people having fun gambling. But it made me wonder if there wasn’t at least something more to life for people.”

And then there was the elderly man he met who seemed to be upset about everything and everybody.

“I thought, ‘Is this what happens to you in retirement? You just can’t find anything in life that you like?’ ”

So with Peggy Evans’ support, Evans decided to take a step he knew would shock a lot of his former co-workers. Now his days are spent studying Greek and church management and Bible studies at the Calvary Chapel School of Ministry in Costa Mesa.

It was a lawyer who once worked for Evans who informed me of this new development. Unfortunately, I hit a stone wall when I told Evans I wanted to write about it. Evans had seen plenty of publicity in his days as a prosecutor. This was something private he was doing, and he simply did not want any fanfare about it.

He was persuaded to talk only with the hope that his story might help other retirees. Others, perhaps, who once stood with the movers and shakers, but in retirement, their expertise no longer in demand, at odds with themselves over how to spend their free days.

Evans doesn’t recommend the seminary for everyone. But he does want to make clear you’re never too old to try something dramatically new. He’s in a class with folks young enough to be his grandchildren and having a great time. You can bet he’s the only ex-prosecutor in the class.

“When I was in the D.A.’s office, I never thought of myself as someone with power,” Evans said. “I was just doing a job that needed doing.”

His new job needs doing too. No reason ex-prosecutors can’t pitch in.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 966-7789 or sending e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com.