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Eight different women in the DA’s office are suing their employer District Attorney Todd Spitzer, alleging he allowed years of abuse and harassment from one of his top aides and retaliated against anyone who raised concerns.
Today – on Election Day – county supervisors are meeting behind closed doors to talk about those cases just months ahead of them going to trial next year.
The discussion also comes weeks after supervisors settled with Damon Tucker, a former district attorney investigator who investigated Spitzer and claimed he found evidence of Spitzer engaged in “money laundering, terrorist threats, extortion and solicitation of bribes.”
[Read: Could OC’s District Attorney Office Be Facing A Jury Trial Like Never Before?]
All of the cases center around Spitzer and Gary LoGalbo, who was one of Spitzer’s top prosecutors and Spitzer’s best man at his wedding.
According to several lawsuits, LoGalbo regularly harassed women in the district attorney’s office, earning him the nickname “Scary Gary.”
Those claims were backed up by a county internal investigation that was ordered after multiple women reported him.
LoGalbo retired at the end of 2020 as complaints were mounting and he repeatedly told staff that Spitzer knew what he was doing, according to the lawsuits.
But after LoGalbo left, Spitzer allegedly made moves to undermine the attorneys who brought forward complaints about him, according to multiple lawsuits.
Tracy Miller, who worked at the district attorney’s office for over 25 years and was one of the department’s highest ranking women, sued Spitzer in May 2022, alleging that she was pushed out of the prosecutor’s office after she helped several of her subordinates report LoGalbo.
“After numerous instances of discrimination by Spitzer and his inner circle, the County has strategically chosen to allow the treatment of these courageous employees to continue and the victim shaming to run freely for all to witness,” Miller claimed in her suit.
[Read: High-Ranking OC Prosecutor Quits, Says DA Spitzer Jeopardized Mass Shooting Prosecution]
Spitzer’s spokesperson Kimberly Edds declined to comment on Monday, saying they don’t speak about pending litigation.
In the past, Spitzer claimed Miller’s lawsuit was part of a conspiracy to damage his reelection campaign in 2022.
Seven other women backed up Miller’s claims in their own lawsuits against the county, saying that once LoGalbo left, Spitzer and his top aide Shawn Nelson – also a former OC Supervisor – moved in to stamp out any complaints.
According to four of the lawsuits, Spitzer called LoGalbo’s victims “dishonest” and yelled at Miller, telling her to “take your little notes about me that end up in reports.”
One of the lawyers claimed Spitzer also called them to “influence her testimony and intimidate her into not suing him.”
They all also pointed to a 2021 internal investigation into Spitzer that found Spitzer “flagrantly” violated county rules around abusive conduct and acted with “malice” toward employees, but that report was not included in their legal complaints.
The county is also facing a defamation lawsuit from Mohammad Abuershaid, a Muslim former public defender who LoGalbo allegedly referred to as a terrorist at the county prosecutor’s office, according to two of the other suits.
That case will also be discussed at the board’s Tuesday meeting.
“The Board’s inaction has sent a clear message to Plaintiff … that harassment, discrimination, and retaliation when engaged in by politically well-connected men will be tolerated by the current members of the Board of Supervisors,” wrote one of the women suing the county.
“Quite simply, the Board should have done more and should do more,” she continued. “It’s apparent they won’t.”
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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