Orange County supervisors Tuesday approved nearly $2 million in settlements with two more attorneys who sued the county over alleged sexual harassment involving a former prosecutor, bringing the county’s total payouts in related cases to nearly $13 million.
On a 3-2 vote, with Supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen dissenting, the board approved a $995,000 settlement for Clarisse Magtoto and $988,000 for Amy Tallakson.
Both lawsuits stem from allegations against former prosecutor Gary LoGalbo, who was Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer’s best man at his wedding and retired amid a scandal over the allegations and died at home in November 2022.
That leaves one remaining lawsuit, a racial harassment claim filed by former Orange County public defender Mohammad Abuershaid, who alleges LoGalbo referred to him as a “terrorist” while discussing cases he handled.
Two other $925,000 settlements were approved earlier this month for Deputy District Attorney Mallory Miller and former prosecutor Shabnum Azizi, now an attorney in San Diego. Wagner and Nguyen also rejected those settlements.
The settlements followed a $3.5 million verdict won last month by Deputy District Attorney Bethel Cope-Vega against the county.
Cope-Vega’s victory followed a triumph for Tracy Miller last year in her lawsuit against the county, Spitzer and his former top assistant, Shawn Nelson — now an Orange County Superior Court judge.
Miller, who won a $3 million verdict and $1.5 million in attorneys fees, said she was forced to retire due to retaliation for moving to protect whistleblowers alleging harassment from LoGalbo.
The amount of attorney fees Cope-Vega will receive has yet to be determined, but combined with other settlements totaling about $1.3 million, the county’s losses now stand at roughly $12.9 million, with one case still pending.
It is unknown how much the firm representing the county, Sheppard-Mullin, has billed the county.
The county’s risk-assessment attorneys had negotiated a settlement for about $6 million that would have resolved all of the cases, but the Board of Supervisors rejected it in August 2021, and hired Sheppard-Mullin to defend the county.
The cases were all moved to San Diego because of Spitzer’s status as Orange County’s top prosecutor and Nelson’s position on the Orange County bench.
Orange County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Kimberly Edds said in a statement that “the Orange County District Attorney’s Office has always supported the victims of sexual harassment and their right to sue and receive compensation for their damages.
“The OCDA has, and continues to, advocate for all its employees to be free of discrimination and harassment,” the statement said. “This settlement is about the harassment engaged in by a former senior assistant deputy district attorney.
“It is also a condemnation of the actions of County Counsel. He hired an outside investigator who threatened our employees with termination if they did not participate in the investigation and promised them confidentiality. Then County Counsel went on to publicly humiliate and victim-shame these women by deeming the confidential report a public document, failing to adequately protect their identities in that public document and then releasing it to the media.
“We are not in any way surprised by this settlement or the dollar amount since County Counsel broke its promises to these women and betrayed their trust.”
Supervisors also announced that Jennifer Kearns accepted a $2.75 million settlement in her lawsuit alleging she was wrongly disciplined for her work as a District Attorney’s Office investigator on a high-profile rape case involving Dr. Grant Robicheaux and his girlfriend, Cerissa Riley.
Supervisors rejected a mediator-approved $2.5 million settlement in September, but approved a $2.75 million deal March 10 that Kearns accepted, it was announced Tuesday. She agreed to resign as part of the settlement.
The $2.75 million settlement was approved 3-2 with support from Orange County Board Chairman Doug Chaffee, Vice Chairwoman Katrina Foley and Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who also supported the LoGalbo settlements.
Kearns started working for the District Attorney’s Office in 2017 following 25 years on the Long Beach Police Department. She sued in 2021, alleging Spitzer retaliated against her and placed her on six months of administrative leave for her work on the Robicheaux-Riley case that generated headlines as it became a political football in Spitzer’s campaign to unseat then-District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.
Kearns’ work on the case became fodder for Robicheaux and Riley’s attorneys, who ultimately whittled it down to Riley escaping any charges and Robicheaux accepting a plea deal on gun and drug charges. The two had been initially charged with drugging and raping several women they met at bars in the Newport Beach area.
“Jennifer Kearns gave 34 years of her life to the pursuit of justice,” her attorney, Bijan Darvish said in a statement. “For the last decade, she dedicated herself to the most vulnerable — survivors of sexual assault — people who trusted the system to protect them. She believed in that system. She fought for it every single day. Then that system turned on her.”
Darvish said his client became a “scapegoat” in the high-profile case.
“She was stripped of her peace officer status, marched out of the office she had served with distinction, and placed on administrative leave for more than six months — all without explanation, and all under a cloud of suspicion she never deserved,” Darvish said.
The attorney said the office’s “command staff… cleared her of any acts of moral turpitude or dishonesty,” Darvish said. “The Orange County Superior Court itself rejected the claim that she was a `rogue investigator’ — finding that characterization not just wrong, but ludicrous. But she was branded a liar anyway.”
Darvish said it was a “profound betrayal” of his client.
“This settlement is believed to be one of the largest — if not the largest — ever reached for retaliation against District Attorney Todd Spitzer,” Darvish said.