Orange County Prosecutor Won’t Face Charges

The state attorney general’s office said Wednesday that it will not file felony charges against Orange County Assistant Dist. Atty. Brent Romney for having allegedly used office personnel in his battle with a rival for district attorney in 1998.

Chief Assistant Atty. Gen. George Williamson said there was “insufficient and inconclusive evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt” that Romney was motivated by “purely political” reasons for asking a secretary to pull sentencing files of Superior Court Judge Anthony Rackauckas.

It is a felony to misuse county resources for political purposes. The attorney general’s office also cleared Romney of wrongdoing in a second allegation that he used public resources to distribute candidate fliers for his campaign.

“No crime occurred,” Williamson wrote.

The file-pulling episode promised to embarrass both Romney, in his first run for public office, and Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, running for state attorney general next year on his record of fighting political corruption. Capizzi’s career highlights includes the conviction of former Orange County Supervisor Bob Battin for the same felony charge of misusing county resources for which Romney was investigated.

Neither Romney nor Rackauckas could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Capizzi said his office’s investigation into the incident has been on hold pending a decision by Lungren’s office.

“Since they have concluded there is no basis for anything of a criminal nature, we will have to determine if there are any ramifications from a personnel point of view,” Capizzi said. “But those decisions are confidential and private. It is not something we will be able to discuss.”

While the closing of the investigation ends the matter criminally, it promises to reverberate next year in the district attorney’s race.

“He’s dead politically,” California Republican Party Chairman Michael Schroeder said of Romney, one of three candidates in the race with Rackauckas and Assistant Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade.

At issue were allegations by Deputy Dist. Atty. Sean Stafford that, in August, Romney had an office secretary gather files to research a list of 13 felony cases prosecuted before Rackauckas. They were three-strikes cases in which the defendant was sentenced to less than the maximum time.

Romney, who supervises misdemeanor cases in Municipal Court, said he pulled the files to check the accuracy of a three-strikes case report that the office generates monthly. He denied pulling the files to use the information during the campaign to charge that Rackauckas was soft on crime.

Among those demanding an investigation of Romney’s conduct was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), whose wife, Rhonda Carmony, is being prosecuted on felony charges stemming from a controversial 1995 special election. She is due back in court next month for trial after a jury deadlocked in favor of conviction in her first trial, prosecuted by Romney.

Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) also is being prosecuted on charges stemming from the election. A Municipal Court judge threw out some of the charges Wednesday and ordered both sides to seek a compromise in the case.

Times staff writer Peter M. Warren contributed to this story.