D.A. Investigator’s Lawsuit Can’t Target Assistant in Secret Taping

The chief of investigations for the Orange County district attorney’s office cannot obtain legal damages from an assistant who secretly recorded conversations with him as part of a state investigation, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor dismissed Mike Clesceri as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by his boss, chief investigator Donald Blankenship. The judge made the decision Nov. 19 at the urging of Clesceri’s lawyer, who contended that any covert recording was legally justified.

In November 2002, the state attorney general’s office acknowledged that it directed secret recordings inside the Orange County prosecutor’s office.

The recordings were part of a state probe into whether Blankenship was dishonest during an investigation.

Blankenship contended in the suit that he was a target of that investigation and that Clesceri, his subordinate, was the one who recorded him. No criminal charges were filed as a result of the state investigation.

Clesceri said he was pleased with the judge’s decision to dismiss him from the lawsuit. He said he thought Blankenship filed the lawsuit in an attempt to learn what evidence the state has against him.

Blankenship’s attorney, Charles Goldwasser, said he plans to ask the court to allow him to file an amended suit and include Clesceri as a defendant.

The focus of the attorney general’s investigation was whether Blankenship had lied to a state investigator looking into allegations of misconduct by Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas. The district attorney was not charged with a crime.

The lawsuit still names Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, and two of his top officials, as defendants.