Corrupt OC – Will FBI probe put more county officials behind bars?

Ruth Hull
Activist Post

Are more Orange County politicians about to join the last sheriff, Mike Corona, behind bars? The FBI is coming to town to investigate more political corruption in a county where law-abiding behavior from our elected officials is way outside the norm.

According to various news sources, including the Los Angeles Times, Capitol News and elsewhere , the F.B.I. is finally investigating corruption in Orange County.

For the last three years, seniors, crime victims and others have demanded an investigation of District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and other high-level officials. Will his office itself be investigated, or will it misdirect the investigation against his political enemies? Will the F.B.I. do its job and get at the real corruption in the county or will the investigation be a whitewash?

What is bringing the F.B.I to town this time? Did they listen to the Orange County residents or did Orange County leaders forget to give the feds their cut?

Assuming they are investigating actual corruption, where will they begin?

OC Corruption 101A: Who made the life savings of Orange County Seniors disappear?

In recent years, there has been a shuffling at at the Orange County Public Guardian’s office. It seems that former Public Guardian John Williams got the ax after he was caught with his hands in the pockets of the county’s senior citizens and even the pockets of their heirs. (Yes, Orange County politicians have a pocket fetish.) But the real corruption issue revolves around a connection between Williams and District Attorney Tony Rackauckaus that was never investigated to the satisfaction of residents. Why was Deputy District Attorney Todd Spitzer fired over a phone call inquiring about a case at the Public Guardian’s office? That case exposed serious mismanagement of funds involving the District Attorney’s girlfriend Peggy Buff and former Public Guardian John Williams? It wasn’t Williams or Buff who fired Spitzer. The firing came from Buff’s boyfriend Rackauckaus, who cited Spitzer’s inquiry as the reason for the firing. Was that an admission on the District Attorney’s part that he was involved in the corruption? A lot of Orange County residents and officials believe so. Is the F.B.I. finally following the lead of over 80,000 police officers, who asked that the Spitzer firing be investigated? Will the ever popular Todd Spitzer (now a county supervisor) be the next district attorney?

OC Corruption 101B: Since when is an insult worse than murder? Answer: when you enter Orange County?

In Anaheim, an unarmed Manuel Diaz was shot and killed by an assailant with a badge. There has been no prosecution. In instance after instance of police shootings, families are hit with excuse after excuse as to why the killing of their unarmed, law-abiding loved one was not a crime. Most toy stores sell toy badges. If you buy one before you commit a crime, does it double as a get out of jail free card?

Why is Quee Chadwick dead? Why was her husband allowed to kill her, take her to San Diego and dump her in a dumpster? Too often Orange County women find they have to die to get the attention of Orange County’s law enforcement and lead prosecutor. Even then, crimes against women are rarely prosecuted.

Rackauckaus has yet to prosecute the case of the elderly woman whose life savings was ripped off through banking transfers pulled off by a man who abused and tried to starve the woman before she was rescued. Like other crime victims, the Santa Ana woman discovered that some criminals are above the law. She died in fear, hoping some official or the courts would help her get her money back. Her assailant was a political aspirant who had run for public office and who was tight with friends of Rackauckaus.

At the last city Santa Ana City Council meeting, an informant commented that one of the top complaints of families of deceased Orange County victims of violent crimes is that the autopsy results don’t always match what the treating physicians told them about the cause of death. This makes it easier not to prosecute those responsible for violent homicides. Better watch out. In Orange County, a bullet to the head could be declared a heart attack.

Domestic violence is almost never prosecuted in Orange County. I’ve personally spoken with many victims who find it hard to understand why bruises, blood and death threats mean nothing to Tony Rackaukaus. These victims cannot understand why battered females are treated as yesterday’s garbage by the district attorney’s office in this county.

However some crimes are prosecuted. If you are of Palestinian descent and you turn your back on the Israeli Ambassador, expect to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Or if you are an American doctor from Iran and you mess up your paper work, expect a jail sentence. An Iranian doctor named Amir discovered no good deed goes unpunished where Rackauckaus is concerned. Amir donated long hours without pay to people in need. His failing was that he was barely literate in English and messed up his paperwork — a crime worse than murder in Orange County. Some young men who were treated by him had filed an insurance claim (though Amir didn’t receive any money or contact the insurance company himself). But when the insurance company went to look up the claims of he young men, the paper work had been was badly done. Tony pulled out all the stops to get this language offender. Amir was prosecuted by one of the top deputy district attorneys, Claudia Alvarez, who had nothing better to do than jail people for bad paperwork. She pointed out that he sometime did the sinister act of shortening his name to “Rossi.” Part of the trouble is that much of the District Attorney’s funding comes from the Insurance Department, giving insurance companies priority over flesh and blood people in Orange County.

So, in Orange County, you are pretty much free to kill away as long as you keep your paper work in order and don’t turn your back on any warmongers.

OC Corruption 101C: Make sure you have on your bullet proof vest next time you see a police officer.

The police in Orange County are too busy beating or shooting the residents to burden themselves with mundane tasks, like arresting or even investigating violent crimes. I spoke with a beautiful female crime victim in the Santa Ana Hills whose husband had hidden in her attic for a year in violation of a domestic violence restraining order. After he was caught, nothing happened. Restraining order violators are above the law in this county.

Some people are just above the law, like an Orange County man who photographed his restraining order violations and put the photographs into his divorce file and sent the evidence to the opposing council and the court. You would think he would be in jail. One of his victims is dead. Two others are in fear for their lives. When his daughter reported that he sexually abused her, the officers of the Santa Ana Police Department laughed.

Identity theft, grand theft and Internet bank fraud are no longer considered crimes for the most part in Orange County. The Santa Ana Police Department tells victims of grand theft to file civil suits — even when the banks present strong evidence of the crimes. The Sheriff’s office also sidesteps these matter and fails to take action against bank thieves. Sandra Hutchens might want to supply her deputies with copies of the penal code. Most are hold-overs from the Corona days.

However, if you are a Latino, hang onto your identification. Misplacing it can get you arrested (long term) in Santa Ana — even if you are an American citizen. But be polite —even if the officers are mistreating you. Calling an officer a name can get you shot and killed in Santa Ana as Kevin Arellano recently discovered.

The Santa Ana Police department has shot five unarmed residents this year. At the August 5th meeting of the Santa Ana City Council, residents packed the room to call for a federal civil rights probe into the Santa Ana police department. Former elected school board member Steve Rocco blamed the Santa Ana City Council for police killings and for covering up murders.

In Fullerton, they don’t have to shoot you. The police, there have become experts in beating homeless people like Kelly Thomas to death.

Are you still waiting for that video that shows who entered the parking garage where Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence were supposedly killed? Don’t hold your breath. The Irvine Police Department is not releasing it. They’ve got it. I spoke to the security guard who was present when the police confiscated it. The IPD’s refusal of the freedom of information request amounted to an admission that it was in their possession. Is the truth too explosive? Chis Dorner is dead — executed without a trial or even an indictment. So who is being protected by the withholding of the video?

OC Corruption 101D: Justice? That went bye-bye long ago when the judges discovered they could ignore all those pesky little statutes.

Orange County has a reputation for providing justice to the highest bidder. Very few, if any, attorneys in Orange are even willing to represent crime victims. I’ve personally brought this issue up with the bar. The State Bar is aware of the problem and has no solution. If you are poor, run.

Orange County’s corruption appears so pervasive that it has even spread to nearby counties. In Riverside County, crime victim and international reporter Janet Phelan asked Judge Thomas Cahraman if embezzlement was a crime. He did not answer her. Crime victims throughout Southern California are finding that judges don’t consider the most clear-cut and extreme violations of law by the rich to be crimes. Why are judges ignoring the law? Why do police and district attorneys ignore the law? Have the law-keepers become so lawless that justice is a thing of the past?

So, with the F.B.I calling on Orange County officials, can the residents expect a showy whitewash or will the people get changes and actual justice? The answer is yet to be seen.

This article first appeared at Digital Journal

Ruth Hull is an activist and writer whose career has included work as a criminal defense attorney, a licensed private investigator, and an educator.