Rohrabacher Calls for Probe of D.A.’s Office

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher called on the state attorney general Saturday to investigate the Orange County district attorney’s office for what the congressman contended was the attempted blackmail of a Superior Court judge into removing himself from election-fraud cases relating to Assemblyman Scott Baugh.

Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said Assistant Dist. Atty. Jan Nolan and Deputy Dist. Atty. Brent Romney met with Superior Court Judge James L. Smith in October and “tried to pressure” the judge into stepping down from cases involving Baugh’s chief of staff, Maureen Werft, and Rhonda Carmony, Rohrabacher’s campaign manager who is now his fiancee.

Rohrabacher accused the two prosecutors of threatening to make public a 13-year-old case involving the judge’s wife, Judith Smith.

Smith said Saturday he would not label the district attorney’s meeting with him as a blackmail attempt.

“I’m not sure that ‘blackmail’ was the appropriate term because there was nothing to blackmail me with,” Smith said. “As to whether or not they try to exert pressure is something I cannot comment.”

The prosecutors’ meeting with Smith came in September, two weeks after he dismissed 17 of 22 counts filed against Baugh in connection with campaign finance fraud, citing errors by prosecutors in seeking an indictment from the Orange County Grand Jury. The district attorney’s office refiled five perjury counts and 13 misdemeanor violations against the legislator.

Because Smith originally threw out most their case against Baugh, prosecutors “went over the ethical and the legal lines by trying to intimidate the judge” into stepping down, Rohrabacher said Saturday.

Romney, the prosecutor assigned to the cases, confirmed Saturday his office “became aware of some facts, which caused sufficient concern that we wanted to bring to the court’s attention.” He and Nolan met with Smith--in the presence of Werft’s and Carmony’s attorneys--to discuss a possible conflict of interest on the part of the judge.

Smith on Saturday declined to comment on Rohrabacher’s allegations because, he said, of the case still pending in his court.

But he said the potential conflict stemmed from a 1983 incident in which he and his wife, then a secretary with Orange Unified School District, were given an air-conditioning unit by someone who delivered it to their home while they were on vacation. Smith, who was on the bench at the time, said he asked the district attorney’s office to investigate the case because he wanted the unit returned.

Smith said he later delivered the air conditioner to the district attorney’s office to be returned to the school district after it was determined that it came from the district.

No charges were filed and the district attorney’s office closed the case.

In September, after his meeting with Romney and Nolan, Smith advised Supervising Superior Court Judge David Carter of the matter. Carter agreed with Smith that there was no potential conflict of interest. Carter said Saturday that Smith showed “exemplary ethics back in 1983.”

Romney said that after the prosecutors raised the issue in September, Smith determined that no such conflict existed and that he would continue with the cases.

“It’s unfortunate that a United States congressman would make such inaccurate and inflammatory allegations when he has no personal knowledge of the details involving our office, the defendants . . . and Judge Smith,” Romney said in response to Rohrabacher’s accusations.

“We simply emphatically deny any attempt by the district attorney’s office to intimidate or . . . blackmail the judge,” he added.

Baugh faces felony and misdemeanor charges of alleged campaign finance fraud. Most of the charges allege that the legislator misreported tens of thousands of dollars in campaign loans and contributions during the 1995 special election to replace Cypress Republican Doris Allen, who was recalled during that same election.

Carmony faces three felony charges that she helped orchestrate the illegal circulation of petitions on behalf of a decoy Democratic to help Baugh siphon votes from his chief Democratic rival.

Werft pleaded guilty last month to a misdemeanor charge of voting illegally in the special election and was sentenced by Smith to one year of informal probation, fined $2,700 and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.