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OC board approves settlements in sexual harassment suits involving prosecutor
State warns 15 cities, including 1 in SoCal, to comply with housing law
By City News Service
By Joe Taglieri joet@beaconmedianews.com
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range 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
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The OCDA’s headquarters. | Photo courtesy of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office
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 See Harassment suits Page 32
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
ov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Housing and Community Development issued final warnings Wednesday to 15 municipalities that have failed to adhere to affordable housing law requirements. The cities and counties are more than 60 days away from securing a certified housing element, according to the governor’s office. They have 30 days to respond to this week’s Notices of Violation before HCD takes further action, including referral to Attorney General Rob Bonta for likely litigation. The 15 municipalities that received Notices of Violation this week are the city of Montclair located in San Bernardino County, along with Atwater, Avenal, California City, Corcoran, Escalon, Half Moon Bay, Hanford, Kings County, Lemoore, Merced County, Oakdale, Patterson, Ridgecrest and Turlock. HCD has previously entered court-enforced agreements with the Southern California cities of San Bernardino, Coronado, Fullerton, Malibu, La Habra Heights, Artesia and Norwalk. The state is in active litigation against Huntington Beach over housing law compliance. “I’m disappointed on behalf of the state and the people of California that after years of effort, we still have communities that aren’t meeting the needs of their residents,” Newsom said in a statement. “There’s no carveout here. No community gets a pass when it comes to addressing homelessness or creating more housing access. We’ll keep pushing forward by enforcing the law, fighting NIMBY actions, and holding See Housing law Page 31
local governments accountable, because every Californian deserves a place to call home.” Montclair officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a February statement after a U.S. Supreme Court refusal to hear Huntington Beach’s appeal in the ongoing legal battle with the state, Mayor Casey McKeon said, “The voters ... elected us to defend our local control over municipal affairs, especially housing, and that’s what we will continue to do relentlessly. Even though this path has ended, other paths will always exist for us to continue to rigorously fight to defend the Huntington Beach residents’ local control.” Huntington Beach officials added that they “will continue to vigorously defend (the city’s) environmental stewardship, its charter-city authority, and its right to fair and evenhanded enforcement of State housing laws in the Superior Court.” Under California housing law, every municipality must adopt a plan for affordable housing, called a housing element, that demonstrates intentions for meeting regional housing needs for residents at all income levels. Local officials must submit housing elements to HCD for review. State officials said that with HCD’s guidance and technical assistance, along with enforcement, 92% of California communities have complied with housing element requirements in the sixth cycle. Wednesday’s notices to the 15 cities and counties that remain out of compliance begin a final push to