OC District Attorney Explains Why He Fired Top Deputy

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said Wednesday he fired the man he was grooming to succeed him, because the prosecutor bullied staffers and had other ethical lapses.
  
But Todd Spitzer responded by calling Rackauckas a corrupt prosecutor and accused him of letting deputy district attorneys withhold exculpatory evidence against a carjacker who was wrongly convicted.
  
Rackauckas, his chief of staff, Susan Kang Schroeder, and four top deputies met with reporters for about two hours today to give Rackauckas a chance to explain why he fired Spitzer in August.
  
Spitzer followed up with his own two-hour-plus news conference.
  
Rackauckas said he wanted to ``set the record straight,'' because Spitzer has sniped at the him since the firing.
  
``He's made a lot of statements, and the public needs to get answers to some of these issues,'' Rackauckas said.
  
Rackauckas said he plans to run for another term in 2014 to stop Spitzer, who also plans to run for District Attorney in four years.
  
Rackauckas, who cited privacy concerns in previous refusals to discuss the firing, said he got some legal device and decided it was OK to air some of the issues. Plus, he said, Spitzer thrust himself into controversy by attacking him.
  
Rackauckas said he did not need to justify the firing, because Spitzer was an ``at-will'' employee who could be fired without cause.
  
Rackauckas said Spitzer used his position to intimidate workers in Public Administrator John Williams' office. The final straw, Rackauckas said, was when Spitzer called the office on behalf of a woman targeted in a check-kiting investigation. Spitzer, he said, believed she was a victim of domestic violence and should not be prosecuted.
  
Spitzer inappropriately once gave a bottle of wine to a court clerk, Rackauckas said.
  
Spitzer was a deputy district attorney in the early 1990s, before being elected to the Orange County Board of Supervisors and later serving in the state Assembly.
  
He said he was unaware that rules had changed, and prosecutors could no longer give gifts to court clerks. Spitzer said the gesture was meant to thank the clerk for speeding up some paperwork for a case.
  
Rackauckas said Spitzer undermined his authority, when he held a party to celebrate prosecutor furloughs made necessary by budget cuts.
  
Spitzer said other supervisors in the office put on the party, and he agreed to have it at his house to help boost the morale of prosecutors whose pay was cut by about 5 percent.
  
Rackauckas was critical of how Spitzer handled a years-long healthcare fraud case that involved nearly two dozen defendants.
  
Spitzer said he was working on the case while battling throat cancer and never missed a day of work.
  
Rackauckas did not like how Spitzer handled his recusal from endorsing a supervisoral candidate at a state Republican Central Committee meeting. Then-Fullerton City Councilman Shawn Nelson beat Anaheim City Councilman Harry Sidhu, and Nelson held  supervisor's seat until the November election.
  
Rackauckas said Spitzer declined an endorsement, because Sidhu was being investigated for not living where he said he did.
  
It turned out to be a baseless allegation, and Spitzer denied using Sidhu's name when he said he not endorse a candidate becasue it would be a conflict of interest.
  
Rackauckas' deputies said Spitzer was deaf to constructive criticism, and that he too often threw his weight around, reminding his co-workers that he was next in line to succeed Rackauckas.
  
Spitzer said it was no secret that Rackauckas hired him as potential successor.
  
Spitzer accused Schroeder of manipulating Rackauckas, so she would be the next top prosecutor. Her husband, Michael Schroeder, is a Republican power broker who once rubbed shoulders with disgraced Sheriff Mike Carona.
  
Others drawn into the dispute include Rackauckas' fiancee, Peggi Buff, who works in the public administrator's office; James Ochoa, the wrongly onvicted carjacker; and DeWayne McKinney, who was wrongly convicted of murder.
  
Spitzer and Ochoa's attorney, Scott Borthwick, said DNA evidence that would have exonerated Ochoa in the 2005 carjacking was withheld.
  
Spitzer said it was Rackauckas who won a 1980 conviction against McKinney, who was wrongly convicted, then exonerated in 1999 and won a $1 illion settlement.
  
Schroeder said Rackauckas quickly moved to free both men when new evidence surfaced and said a grateful McKinney even campaigned for Rackauckas.
  
``The fact he raised these two issues shows how desperate he is,'' Schroeder said. ``Todd was well aware of what happened in (the Ochoa) case efore he begged Tony to get his job back (with the District Attorney).''
  
Spitzer said he made a mistake in taking a job with a district attorney he had criticized for his connection to Carona. But he also said he grew tired of commuting to Sacramento as an Assemblyman and wanted a job closer to home.
  
Spitzer said he thought Carona's conviction for witness tampering would persuade Rackauckas to clean up his act.
  
``I thought their character had changed,'' Spitzer said, referring to his old boss and Schroeder. ``I thought (Carona) had shaken them up.''