Orange County Supervisors told their lawyers to move ahead with settling lawsuits from eight different women who worked at the county prosecutor’s office who claimed they were sexually harassed and that District Attorney Todd Spitzer punished them for bringing up their complaints.
The decision ends two years of legal battles that spilled into public during Spitzer’s 2022 reelection campaign, when he was sued by Tracy Miller, one of his top prosecutors who alleged she faced retaliation from Spitzer for helping people report sexual harassment.
All eight of the harassment claims focused on Gary LoGalbo, one of Spitzer’s appointees and the best man at his wedding, which a county HR investigation found regularly sexually harassed women at the office, earning him the nickname “Scary Gary.”
[Read: OC Supervisors to Quietly Discuss Eight Harassment Lawsuits Against District Attorney]
While Spitzer declined to comment on the litigation before the meeting, he issued a short statement after the supervisors delegated negotiations to their lawyers.
“These women deserve compensation for Gary LoGalbo’s misconduct,” Spitzer said. “As soon as I was briefed about it I took immediate action and put him on administrative leave.”
The eight women who sued him disputed that in their lawsuits against him, claiming Spitzer called LoGalbo’s accusers “dishonest” and encouraged them not to sue him.
“Mr. Spitzer embarked on a campaign of retaliation against Plaintiff and other victims of Mr. Logalbo for blowing the whistle on his “best” friend,” wrote one of the women who sued Spitzer.
Miller also claimed in her suit that Shawn Nelson – a former OC Supervisor and Spitzer’s right hand man at the DA’s office – came forward with threats.
“Nelson threatened to take away all promotional responsibility from Miller and other Senior Assistant District Attorneys that provided statements in the sexual harassment investigation against LoGalbo,” Miller wrote in her suit.
It remains unclear how much money Miller or the other women will receive.
At Tuesday’s supervisor’s meeting, County counsel Leon Page said the board gave his office the power to negotiate the final settlements.
“The board unanimously delegated to county counsel and outside counsel limited settlement authority to settle various cases of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination.”
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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