Orange County Superior Court Assistant Presiding Judge Cheri Pham quietly told her colleagues last month she would not look to take over as the presiding judge of the court house despite serving as the second in command at the courts since 2023.
Her choice not to seek election comes as her husband, county Supervisor Andrew Do, is wrapping up his final months in office amidst spiraling questions and controversy around how he directed millions of dollars to a nonprofit, which once employed their 22-year old daughter.
That nonprofit is now facing a demand to refund over $2.2 million from county staff, who say the Viet American Society has failed to prove they used the funds for their intended purpose.
This week, the Orange County Register reported that the nonprofit has told county officials they will not pay back any disputed funds.
Sterling Scott Winchell, Viet American Society’s attorney, did not return requests for comment for Voice of OC.
Often, the county’s top judge runs unopposed for the position after serving as the assistant presiding judge.
It’s unclear when the last time was that the assistant presiding judge did not seek election for the top judge because the court doesn’t track those records.
Pham did not give a reason for why she refused to run in her message to her fellow judges, who will now have the opportunity to run for the position of presiding judge without any opposition from her.
“After careful consideration, I have decided not to run for office in the upcoming election. This was not an easy decision,” Pham wrote. “It has been an honor to serve our court in the APJ role, and I want to thank everyone for their support.”
Pham declined to comment further through a court spokesperson.
Viet American Society has been facing increased scrutiny over the last year after an LAist investigation found both county staff and Do directed $13.5 million to the nonprofit through a series of contracts to help feed seniors.
But it was not disclosed that his daughter, Rhiannon Do, had a work affiliation with the group, occasionally even showing up on official records as an officer of the nonprofit.
The nonprofit has missed multiple county deadlines to explain how they spent their money, and fired their auditors who told county staff they were about to say the group had failed to track where the money went and there wasn’t enough of a paper trail to “establish an audit trail,” according to recently released county records.
“The day after the auditor disclosed the details regarding its forthcoming audit…we received notice the VAS was terminating its audit engagement with its audit firm,” wrote county staff in a July 26 demand letter for the funds’ return. “To date, VAS has not demonstrated that it performed as required.”
The dispute between the county and the nonprofit comes after supervisors voted not to implement new requirements to disclose when a supervisor’s family member is seeking a contract.
[Read: OC Supervisors Decide Against Disclosing Family Contracts]
Do – who briefly served on the Garden Grove city council before abruptly resigning in the midst of his term – is the longest serving supervisor on the board right now, and this isn’t the first controversy he’s run up against.
Last November, Do was called to the stand during a trial to testify but didn’t disclose that his wife was a member of the court, which triggered a controversial mistrial.
Do also resigned his seat last year on the board of CalOptima, Orange County’s health plan for the poor, amidst a state audit over executive pay hikes and other hiring practices that raised questions.
[Read: Top Official Resigns From OC’s Health Plan for the Poor Following Revelations of State Probe]
In 2022, he was fined $12,000 by state regulators for steering contracts for lobbyists to his own campaign donors.
[Read: Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do Faces $12,000 State Fine Over ‘Pay to Play’ Politics]
Do and his family have also faced questions for years over whether or not he lives in the district he represents.
[Read: OC Supervisor Andrew Do Accused of Residency Fraud Again as He Runs for Re-Election]
He also faced investigations from state agencies in 2020 over whether or not he used his campaign accounts to launder money, but he was later cleared due to there being insufficient evidence he broke the law.
[Read: State Launches Money Laundering Investigation into Andrew Do and OC Republican Party]
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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