Baugh Seeks D.A. Ousted From Case

SANTA ANA — Saying Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi “has exercised his discretion improperly many times already in this case,” attorneys for Assemblyman Scott R. Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) Tuesday asked a court to remove local prosecutors from the case and reassign it to the state attorney general.

The request was filed just two days before Baugh was to appear for a preliminary court hearing on five felony charges of perjury and 13 misdemeanor charges alleging violations of the Campaign Reform Act. That hearing is now expected to be delayed, lawyers for both sides agreed.

Most of the charges relate to Baugh’s alleged misreporting of tens of thousands of dollars of campaign loans and contributions during the campaign leading up to the special recall election in November 1995, in which Baugh replaced then-Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress).

Alleging that the district attorney’s office committed acts of misconduct when it indicted Baugh in March, the motion filed in Municipal Court said “there is a strong likelihood that unfairness will continue to occur” unless the case is evaluated by an independent prosecutor.

Baugh’s motion also charged that Capizzi cannot separate his political ambitions from the need to cover up his office’s errors by convicting the 34-year-old assemblyman, who was reelected in November.

Baugh’s attorneys, Allan H. Stokke and Ronald G. Brower, argued that Capizzi reaped “a political reward” in October, when he refiled most of the charges against Baugh that had been dismissed by a Superior Court judge.

“This refiling is beneficial to [Capizzi’s] political campaign for attorney general and also helps cover up the fact that a Superior Court judge dismissed his case,” the filing reads.

Most of the original charges against Baugh were thrown out in September, when Superior Court Judge James L. Smith agreed with a defense motion that prosecutors withheld from grand jurors evidence about the truthfulness of a key witness against Baugh, his former campaign treasurer Dan Traxler. The judge dismissed 17 of the 22 charges in the grand jury’s indictment.

Instead of returning to the grand jury a second time, Capizzi’s prosecutors refiled the charges on a criminal complaint, triggering the need for this week’s preliminary hearing at which a judge will weigh the merits of the district attorney’s evidence against Baugh.

Capizzi could not be reached for comment Tuesday about Baugh’s latest legal move, but Assistant Dist. Atty. Brent Romney said the allegation that “politics” has played a role in the prosecution is ludicrous.

“It borders on the absurd that [Capizzi] would prosecute Republicans thinking it would give him some type of advantage,” said Romney of his boss, who is a Republican. “He has been prosecuting these type of cases for 25 years, prosecuting them against Democrats, Republicans and independents.”

Baugh’s lawyers also said they would call Capizzi, Romney and Assistant Dist. Atty. Jan Nolan to testify about their “decision to threaten” Judge Smith into removing himself from the case in October, several weeks after he had dismissed part of the indictment against Baugh.

Baugh also charged for the first time something he and his supporters have said privately for months: that investigators and lawyers for the district attorney have “suborned multiple counts of perjury” while “conspiring to obtain a false indictment and . . . obstruct justice.”

Romney said such allegations were “inflammatory and not supported by the evidence . . . which we will show in court.”

“It is very unfortunate that the defense has chosen to attack the integrity of two . . . very experienced prosecutors in this office,” he said.

The charges against Baugh allege that he falsified his campaign reports in part to hide his ties to a GOP scheme to recruit a decoy Democrat--Laurie Campbell--to siphon votes from his chief Democratic rival in the recall election.

Baugh maintains he had no connection to the scheme and says the misreporting was due to Traxler’s mistakes.

“The bottom line is . . . this prosecution is politically motivated, and Judge Smith confirmed that,” Baugh said. “It is time for a judge to evaluate this in light of the misconduct and the political motivation and recuse the district attorney.”