SANTA ANA, Calif. (KNX) — Three more deputy district attorneys have sued Orange County alleging that a former senior lawyer in the O.C. District Attorney’s Office sexually harassed them. They also alleged D.A. Todd Spitzer retaliated against them after they reported the abuse.
The separate civil complaints were filed Tuesday in O.C. Superior Court. They concern the alleged conduct of former Senior Assistant District Attorney Gary Logalbo. The suits cite an independent county report that found Spitzer spoke ill of one of the plaintiffs and improperly released an earlier report that determined Logalbo had harassed four female lawyers he supervised.
The suits followed one filed in November by one of the women — a Muslim and Afghan-American refugee — alleging Logalbo subjected her to sexual harassment and racist remarks.
Matt Murphy, the attorney representing all four women, alleged in the latest slew of lawsuits that a second independent investigation conducted by the county determined D.A. Spitzer “flagrantly” acted with “malice” toward the women who reported Logalbo’s alleged conduct. Spitzer created a “hostile work environment,” Murphy said.
The second report’s author, attorney Elizabeth A. Frater, concluded that Spitzer violated county personnel rules by releasing the first report to 700-plus employees of the D.A.’s office, and criticizing one of the accusers to a local journalist.
“The County was required by the (public records) statute to release the report to the media members who requested it. Mr. Spitzer was under no such obligation, and his release of the report to OCDA staff had no relation to the PRA requests” that had been filed, Frater wrote.
Frater’s report was not conclusive on the question of whether Spitzer’s motives in releasing the first report was retaliatory.
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