Rackauckas Names New Managers

As part of a major housecleaning, Orange County’s newly elected district attorney said Monday he will replace outgoing Dist. Atty. Mike Capizzi’s entire senior management team with a new slate of prosecutors.

The shake-up comes two weeks after incoming Dist. Atty. Anthony Rackauckas Jr. unveiled a reorganization of the office aimed at speeding cases through the trial process by moving prosecutors out of management jobs into courtrooms.

None of Capizzi’s five top lieutenants will remain in their senior positions when Rackauckas takes office Jan. 4.

They will be replaced by Devallis Rutledge, who heads the training section; Jan Sturla, who is in charge of the fraud division and family support; Chuck Middleton, who is in charge of the sexual assault unit; Chris Evans, who supervises homicide; and Pat Donahue, a felony trial lawyer.

“The people I have chosen have had a substantial amount of experience in trying different cases,” Rackauckas said. “I trust and have confidence in them to do the job.”

The fate of Capizzi’s managers remained uncertain, however.

“I’m going to be talking to them individually in the next couple of days about what their desires are,” Rackauckas said.

Capizzi’s longtime management team consists of Maury Evans, John D. Conley, Brent F. Romney, Jan J. Nolan and Wallace J. Wade, who lost the district attorney’s race to Rackauckas in June. Evans, reached at home Monday evening, said he was not notified officially of the appointments, and could not comment.

“I heard rumors,” said Evans, who has long planned to retire at the end of the year. “Mike [Capizzi] may have received something late afternoon, but I don’t know.”

Capizzi could not be reached for comment.

In July, Rackauckas had asked the Board of Supervisors to halt an 11th-hour spate of hirings and promotions made by Capizzi, saying he would have to reconsider all new positions once he took office.

The office has a staff of about 250 lawyers. Under Rackauckas’ new plan, the number of middle-level managers will drop from 21 to 15.

“I wanted the managers to be able to lead by example,” Rackauckas said. “They will now be able to lead those under them who are less experienced.”

Rackauckas said he expected the changes will be noticed immediately by the rank-and-file prosecutors.

“I think the management style is going to be a little different,” Rackauckas said Monday. “We’re going to have a lot more communication going down and up and all different ways.”