Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer is facing a reckoning years in the making, with county taxpayers now on the hook for over $3 million related to what a jury today concluded was official misconduct, finding he retaliated against female victims of sexual harassment within his own office.
There’s another half dozen female prosecutors with court cases on the same issue waiting to be heard.
On Thursday, a jury found Spitzer and his top aide Shawn Nelson, who’s now an OC Superior Court judge, retaliated against Tracy Miller, one of his top subordinates who reported sexual harassment against prosecutors from the best man at Spitzer’s wedding, who Spitzer later put in a senior role as DA.
The case was heard over the last couple of weeks in San Diego Superior Court under Judge Katherine Bacal after being removed from OC Superior Court where it began in 2022.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, Spitzer said that he “set a very high standard,” and that he felt Miller was falling behind on several of her assignments when she worked for him.
“It is no secret that there was a lot of frustration on my part with her lack of performance in handling these very serious matters,” Spitzer wrote. “In hindsight, I realize that I was not as sensitive to the issues Ms. Miller was facing at the time as I should have been, and for that I am truly sorry.”
“I am heartbroken over the fact that any of my actions could have been interpreted as anything other than a good faith effort to clean up the public corruption in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office,” he continued.
Spitzer’s actions in a separate case also recently put taxpayers on the hook for a $2 million settlement with a former DA investigator who alleged rampant misconduct throughout the top prosecutor’s office including “money laundering, terrorist threats, extortion and solicitation of bribes.”
County supervisors settled that case just before it reached a jury.
[Read: Could OC’s District Attorney Office Be Facing A Jury Trial Like Never Before?]
Many of these cases have dogged Spitzer since before he was reelected in a landslide in 2022, shortly after a judge found he was one of the first elected DA’s in the state to violate the state’s racial bias laws.
[Read: Judge Finds OC DA Todd Spitzer Violated Racial Bias Law – Could Be First in State for an Elected DA]
Spitzer has another four years left on his term as DA.
Yet it’s unclear if he will seek reelection, with Spitzer hinting on the witness stand he may not.
Late Thursday afternoon, the jury followed up their initial decision with another that Spitzer would have to pay $25,000 in damages out of his own pocket.
Thursday’s decision caps off years of questions around Spitzer’s hiring of Gary LoGalbo, who was accused of harassing multiple women after Spitzer promoted him, earning him the nickname “Scary Gary.”
A county HR investigation backed up those findings, and LoGalbo – who later died – quietly retired at the end of 2020.
After he left, Spitzer launched a retaliation campaign against the women who spoke up, according to testimony from Tracy Miller, who was one of the highest ranking women in the DA’s office and had worked there for over two decades.
Jurors apparently believed Miller, evidenced by their Thursday decision.
In court, Miller said that she was repeatedly told to “baby-sit,” various projects, that Spitzer repeatedly screamed at her both in person and over the phone, and once asked her in the middle of a meeting what sized tampons she wears.
He also publicly raised complaints about her in front of other senior DA staff.
“He walked into the executive meeting and said ‘Why are you here today? I’m not ready to deal with you,’” Miller said. “‘I thought you weren’t going to be here.’”
Miller sued and ultimately won $3 million on Thursday, which a jury determined she was owed for past and future emotional damages along with damage to her career.
County supervisors already tried settling with the other women suing Spitzer last year before their cases went to court, but their offers were turned down.
[Read: OC Supervisors Move to Settle Eight Harassment Cases Against District Attorney]
Supervisors – who also oversee Spitzer’s budget – did not return calls seeking comment.
Except for one.
Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said it was important to see Spitzer held accountable.
“Though the conduct that led to this verdict took place before I joined the Board, it is important that those entrusted to hold the public accountable are themselves held to that same standard,” Sarmiento said in a written statement. “I hope that the verdict in this case sends a strong message that harassment and retaliation against employees will not be tolerated.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.