Lawsuit Against D.A. Is Tossed

A Los Angeles County judge has dismissed most of a lawsuit filed by a group of former Orange County prosecutors against Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas.

In response to a last-minute motion Friday in a Norwalk courtroom, Judge Philip H. Hickok ruled as a jury was preparing to agree on a $4-million verdict. Hickok ended the trial after agreeing with county attorneys that provisions of state labor code on which the suit is based do not apply to government workers.

The judge also agreed with Norm Watkins, an attorney for the county, that one of the four plaintiffs failed to prove that she had been retaliated against for testifying about Rackauckas to the Orange County Grand Jury.

The plaintiffs contended that Rackauckas illegally demoted them after the March 2002 election for supporting his campaign opponent, Deputy Dist. Atty. Wally Wade. The plaintiffs, including Wade, asked for damages, back pay and benefits totaling around $1 million each.

Attorneys for the county argued that Rackauckas had the legal right to make personnel changes in his office. “When you run a big department, it’s hard to make decisions that make everybody happy,” said Watkins.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys -- who said they were taken aback by the ruling -- argued without success that there is no case law to support that conclusion and that the judge should let the jury finish.

The judge’s decision also stunned jurors, said forewoman Miding Miraflor. “We already decided to rule for the plaintiffs and felt the plaintiffs needed to recoup damages,” said Miraflor, an elementary school teacher from Hacienda Heights. “Rackauckas just ended their careers and it was a very mean, vindictive thing to do.”

Jurors had decided against Rackauckas on all causes of action, she said, and asked the judge for help in how to calculate lost pension benefits. Jurors were leaning toward awarding $1 million to each plaintiff, as requested in the lawsuit, she said.

“We felt [Rackauckas] had violated the law,” Miraflor said. “I thought of it as something from ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ where Mr. Rackauckas was the mad queen and the day after the election, he said, ‘Off with their heads.’ ”

Hickok will hold a July 30 hearing on whether to order the former prosecutors to be reinstated.

Wade and his attorney, Marianne Reinhold, declined to comment because the case is still pending.

But Watkins said the judge made the right call. “The trial wasn’t a waste of time,” he said. “I can understand how it would be frustrating for the jury, but these things happen.”

The judge’s decision to stop the trial just short of a verdict was unusual, said Stuart Esner, a Los Angeles lawyer who also teaches at Loyola Law School.

It would have been more prudent for Hickok to let the jury do its job, then rule on the county’s motion, which would have overruled the verdict, Esner said. Then, if the judge were overturned on appeal, the case wouldn’t need to start from scratch.

The lawsuit is one of several that employees have filed against Rackauckas alleging he wrongfully fired or demoted them since taking office in January 1999.

Rackauckas prevailed in a previous jury trial involving a prosecutor who later was ordered reinstated by an arbitrator; three more workers won their jobs back in arbitration, including back pay and benefits. The other lawsuits are pending.

All of the trials have been transferred to Los Angeles County after Orange County judges recused the Orange County Superior Court to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Before being elected district attorney, Rackauckas was an Orange County Superior Court judge.

In July 2002, the grand jury accused Rackauckas of intervening in cases on behalf of friends and campaign contributors, improperly basing hiring decisions on politics and personal loyalty, and misusing public resources.

An investigation by Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer concluded that no crimes occurred but that Rackauckas had shown mismanagement and bad judgment. Rackauckas said he was the victim of a vendetta by disgruntled employees.