D.A. Had Conflict, Lawyer Says

Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas acted against the advice of prosecutors in his office when he chose not to tell defense attorneys representing a man accused of killing three workers at an Anaheim hospital that his father stayed at the same hospital several days before the crime, a defense attorney said.

But a judge who will hear the trial of Dung Trinh said he has not heard anything yet that leads him to believe Rackauckas’ actions in the case amount to a conflict of interest, as defense attorneys contend.

At issue is Rackauckas’ visit with his ill father at West Anaheim Medical Center two days before Trinh allegedly killed three people at the hospital in a shooting rampage Sept. 14, 1999. Defense attorneys want Rackauckas removed from the case because of what they perceive as a conflict.

One day after the shootings, Rackauckas held a news conference outside the Fullerton courthouse to announce he was seeking the death penalty against Trinh and anyone else who goes on a killing rampage in public, abandoning a 20-year policy of weighing all evidence before deciding to seek the death penalty.

Attorneys for Trinh said Rackauckas’ actions were a sign that he took the killings personally. At a hearing Friday, Deputy Public Defender Sharon Petrosino said Rackauckas was advised by staff members to disclose the hospital visit to Trinh’s lawyers but instead concealed it for more than a year.

Petrosino said she plans to ask Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon to have the state attorney general take over the prosecution.

Weatherspoon on Friday rejected the defense attorneys’ request for access to internal district attorney notes and records about the case and its past death penalty decisions. The judge expressed skepticism about the attorneys’ allegations of a conflict.

“I hope there’s more beef to it than that,” Weatherspoon said.

Three deputy prosecutors this month asked senior staff in Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer’s office to investigate Rackauckas for pulling two investigators off a case involving one of the district attorney’s supporters.

The supporter, Patrick DiCarlo, is a friend, business associate and political contributor of Rackauckas. Rackauckas also confirmed he and his wife have spent several nights at DiCarlo’s house in Newport Beach.

But the prosecutor said his actions in the case--involving DiCarlo’s claim that he was an extortion victim--were entirely appropriate. Rackauckas said he reassigned other investigators to the case and did not intend to deflect scrutiny of his friend.

Critics have questioned Rackauckas’ relationship with DiCarlo, a businessman who has been investigated by past district attorney offices but never charged with a crime.