TimesOC: O.C. Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer faces new challenger amid scandal

Good morning and welcome to the TimesOC newsletter.

It’s Friday, March 19. I’m Ben Brazil, bringing you the latest roundup of Orange County news and events.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer has been in the news for what seems like almost weekly controversies. This week was no different.

A legal motion filed by Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders contends that Spitzer has repeatedly failed to add sheriff’s deputies and investigators who lied in police reports to a list that keeps track of law enforcement officers with histories of misconduct.

Sanders says in the motion filed last week that the district attorney’s office hasn’t honored its Brady notification list, which is a record that district attorney’s offices are supposed to update with the names of law enforcement personnel who have records of dishonesty, criminality and other issues that could affect their credibility as a witness.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Brady vs. Maryland requires that prosecutors notify defense attorneys when one of the officers on the list is a witness in a case.

Sanders’ motion delves into an evidence mishandling scandal, where Orange County sheriff’s deputies were found to have booked evidence late or failed to book evidence at all but subsequently lied about it in reports. Sanders claims that Spitzer hasn’t added the names of law enforcement personnel involved in the scandal.

“In this very moment, we can finally see clearly the extent to which the Orange County D.A. has been operating a completely fraudulent system for disclosing evidence about officers who have lied,” Sanders said in an email.

“They will scramble now and probably quickly add hundreds of people to their Brady List — but only because they got caught. It’s been a utter scam committed in violation of their oath as prosecutors — the type of fraud that leads juries to believe dishonest cops and the innocent to being wrongfully convicted. It’s beyond shameful.”

Sanders has been a vocal critic of Spitzer’s and claims that he hasn’t honored the campaign promises he made to clean up the district attorney’s office. Spitzer replaced former D.A. Tony Rackauckas, who was mired in several scandals during the end of his tenure, many of which Spitzer used against Rackauckas during his campaign. But Spitzer has had to contend with his own scandals, especially with regard to rectifying the evidence mishandling scandal.

Two Orange County Sheriff’s Department audits found that evidence had been booked late more than 1,400 times. Sanders said it isn’t reasonable that only 16 deputies are on the district attorney’s Brady list, and another 23 deputies are being considered for addition to the list, considering those high numbers.

Also this week, former prosecutor Peter Hardin announced that he would be running for Spitzer’s seat.

Reporter Hannah Fry writes that Hardin said he would focus on ending cash bail, stop prosecuting children as adults and abolish the use of the death penalty.

“I’m running to enhance public safety, heal and restore our victims and survivors of crime, and restore integrity and professionalism to the Orange County district attorney’s office,” Hardin said. “I know that being a guardian of justice means doing the right thing all the time however difficult it may be. Across America we are facing a national reckoning with an outdated and ineffective criminal justice system. We have turned to prisons and punishment and turned our back on rehabilitation, support and redemption.”

Hardin has found support from Paul Wilson, whose wife was killed in the Seal Beach massacre, the deadliest shooting in Orange County history. Wilson has been a harsh critic of Spitzer’s, whom he once supported.

Wilson filed a defamation claim against Spitzer and his spokeswoman Kimberly Edds, alleging “slanderous accusations” in a press release.

“The prosecutors in Orange County’s worst mass murder committed prosecutorial misconduct and prevented the victims’ families from having the killer sentenced to death,” the release said. “Mr. Wilson has every right to be upset about that. But that frustration has morphed into an unrelenting scorched earth campaign against the Orange County district attorney’s office and demands to fire people who have already left the office or were never even involved in that prosecution.”

The press release was in response to a rally that Wilson held in response to a video from December 2019 that had surfaced showing Spitzer praising two prosecutors at a retirement party even though they were part of an illegal jailhouse snitch scandal, a scandal that Spitzer heavily criticized during his campaign. Because of the scandal, Scott Dekraai, the man who killed Wilson’s wife and seven others, was spared the death penalty.

The press release had also claimed that Sanders was planning to run for district attorney. As of now, it’s just Spitzer and Hardin.

“No one in the D.A.’s office had any reason to believe I was running for D.A.,” Sanders said. “All of it including my supposed agenda was completely made up. I asked them for evidence and suddenly cat’s got their tongue. It was all completely fabricated in order to convince people we aren’t really fighting for what we believe in and instead have ulterior motives. Of course, this type of behavior doesn’t exactly square with an office that issues a press release every few days trumpeting its commitment to truth and integrity.”

Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer has a new challenger for his seat.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

NEWS

— Asian American organizations from Orange County put together a caravan and rally to call on the Biden administration to halt the deportation of Vietnamese refugees.

— Santa Ana’s thousands of undocumented residents will now have the ability to serve on city boards, commissions and committees. The City Council also voted unanimously in favor of a $400,000, two-year contract, with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center to provide legal services to undocumented residents who are battling deportation proceedings.

— A Mexican cultural center in Santa Ana signed an agreement to work with the city to clear a homeless encampment in its parking lots. El Centro Cultural de Mexico, a linchpin for the local Latino community, has been fined about $1,800 by the city for not keeping the area clean.

— Friends of Newport Beach Animal Shelter got approval for its first permanent animal shelter.

— Newport Beach residents are heading a recall effort of Gov. Gavin Newsom. They say they have gathered almost 2.1 million signatures.

— Costa Mesa named a park after its longest-tenured police chief, Roger Neth, who has lived in the city since 1936.

— The Costa Mesa City Council appointed a new mayor this week to replace Katrina Foley, who was elected to the county supervisors.

— Laguna Beach Unified secondary school students returned to school this week for the first time since schools reverted to distance learning in the beginning of the pandemic.

— Huntington Beach is modifying its famed Fourth of July parade due to the pandemic.

SPORTS

— School communities are rallying in support of baseball coach and teacher Aaron Pines, who is battling cancer.

— Reporters Andrew Turner and Matt Szabo provide us with a roundup of local school sports.

ARTS

— The Bowers Museum has reopened at 25% capacity and is offering guests four new exhibits, including “Inside the Walt Disney Archives: 50 Years of Preserving Magic.”

— The Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts will be performing “Robin Hood and the White Arrow” at an outdoor venue in Westminster.

— The Newport Beach Arts Commission announced winners for its sculpture picture contest. Winners were selected from more than 300 entries.

OPINION

— Columnist Patrice Apodaca writes about a newlywed waiting for her green card as her mother-in-law, the columnist herself, ponders immigration reform.