D.A. Fires Prosecutor Who Asked for Probe

A veteran homicide prosecutor and outspoken critic of Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas was fired Friday, four months after initiating an investigation of his boss.

The move against Mike Jacobs, a 25-year veteran of the office, comes as the state attorney general looks into a variety of allegations against Rackauckas and others under him.

Rackauckas declined to discuss the reasons he fired Jacobs but issued a statement Friday that Jacobs’ meetings with state officials had nothing to do with it.

“Mr. Jacobs was well within his right to go to Sacramento and complain to the attorneys there, and we have no quarrel with that,” Rackauckas said. “Neither discipline nor termination could be based upon that.”

Jacobs’ attorney, Gary Bennett, said the district attorney is trying to silence a whistle-blower, and that sends other critics in the district attorney’s office a “chilling message.”

“I’m a little concerned that Mr. Rackauckas is trying to send a message to his office that no one is safe,” Bennett said.

Bennett said Rackauckas listed four main reasons for firing Jacobs in a termination letter, each covering a separate issue. Those included allegedly false statements to the attorney general about Rackauckas, inappropriate comments to the news media and unauthorized criticism of state agencies.

During a trip to Sacramento in February, Jacobs and two other attorneys from the D.A.’s office asked the state attorney general to look into a charity Rackauckas founded last year.

The lawyers asked whether any laws were broken when Rackauckas asked his investigators to use sensitive criminal databases to run background checks on candidates who would become commissioners of the foundation by donating money. Rackauckas insists his use of the databases met state standards.

After the trip to Sacramento, Jacobs said: “This isn’t a personality contest. This isn’t something I enjoyed doing. I did it because I thought there were clear-cut violations of law.”

Rackauckas gave written notice in March of his intent to fire Jacobs, who then appealed. After several delays, the district attorney’s office rendered its final decision Friday.

Jacobs was an early supporter in Rackauckas’ campaign for district attorney in 1998 and was one of his top deputies. Rackauckas appointed Jacobs, a pioneer in the use of DNA evidence, to head a unit on that specialty and another dealing with unsolved cases.

Separately, Rackauckas asked the attorney general earlier this year to investigate whether two of his own investigators had stolen evidence related to an extortion case that involved a friend and political donor of his, Newport Beach businessman Patrick DiCarlo. Citing a conflict of interest, Rackauckas recused his office from that extortion investigation and asked the attorney general to investigate the case.