An Open Letter to the District Attorney of Orange County

Mr. Rackauckas: Just what is going on in your office, sir?

I’m not talking about the fight that broke out in a county courthouse three weeks ago between one of your investigators and a defense attorney. Never mind that if a defense attorney did this to a cop, he’d be arrested so fast his head would spin. (Full disclosure: I met this lawyer two weeks ago at a bar association event and had lunch with him on Monday. Although he’s told me his side of the story, he wasn’t trying to sell anything, and I wasn’t looking to buy, either.) But that’s not the issue here.

I’m not even talking about the jailhouse snitch scandal that led to the fight and that has roiled your office—and my county—for two years now since it’s come to light. Plenty of ink has already been spilled about it, including in a letter to the U.S. Attorney General last November by a coalition of legal authorities, who called on the Justice Department to investigate the scandal. But that’s not it, either.

No, I’m wondering about your office’s response to the scandal, and specifically, the way it has retaliated, systematically, against the trial judge who ordered the hearings that brought the misconduct to light.

I couldn’t believe it at first.

More than once after the scandal broke, I had attended events at which some of your senior deputies expressed both regret and resistance over the news. By turns, what I heard from them was that, yes, some mistakes were made, and we understand your concern, but please don’t blow it out of proportion, give us the benefit of the doubt, and by the way, we’re already doing better and will continue to do better.

Then I learned that, in December, a supervising judge of the superior court had to take your office to task for repeatedly using a procedural tool to disqualify the trial judge from 94% of the murder cases that he’s been assigned to since he began scrutinizing your misconduct. That’s 46 out of 49 murder cases, sir. Your office never did that before, and this to a judge who’s among the more experienced, independent, and respected on the felony trial panel. (Full disclosure: I have a white-collar case pending before this judge.)

The supervising judge found that your office had violated the separation of powers under the state and federal constitutions, and he rightly called it an attempt to punish, silence, and intimidate the trial judge as well as send a signal to the rest of the bench. It’s a national story, and the Orange County Bar Association has taken a stand against it.

I’m wondering if you think this demonstrates good faith by an office whose mission is to “enhance public safety and welfare and create a sense of security in the community through the vigorous enforcement of [the] laws in a just, honest, efficient, and ethical manner.”

Sometimes, the right thing to do is take your lumps and stand down, but instead, your office has chosen to appeal the supervising judge’s order, taking the position that you did not direct your deputies to retaliate against the trial judge.

But either you directed them, sir, or you are not sufficiently in command of your office.

Which is it?