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 of 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.
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.