Orange County District. Atti. According to the jury's ruling, Todd Spitzer expressed concerns about his behavior and tried to protect other prosecutors who were sexually harassed by other superiors and tried to protect other superiors' sexual acts, harassing and retaliating against a senior female prosecutor in his office.
The jury heard cases of avoiding potential conflict in San Diego County and found Spitzer’s “malice” action with Tracy Miller, the highest-ranked woman in the prosecutor’s office.
The jury also found that the county did not take reasonable steps to prevent workplace harassment and took “adverse employment actions” against Miller.
“Tracy Miller persistently resisted the county's strongest law enforcement officer and she won,” Miller's attorney John Barnett said after reading the verdict Thursday. “It took a lot of courage and the jury thought she was right.”
The county declined to comment on the verdict and did not immediately return a request for comment from the Spitzer office on Thursday.
The jury found that Spitzer and Nelson were liable for $3 million in damages, including $1.5 million in past emotional distress. The jury has not yet made a verdict on punitive damages and is expected to hear more arguments Thursday afternoon.
Unlike criminal trials, civil trials in California do not require unanimous rulings. In this civil case, the scope of the decisions against the various claims against the defendant is 12-0 to 9-3. The jury voted 10-2 to compensate Spitzer for punitive damages.
Miller sued Orange County, Spitzer and the former chief assistant district. Atti. Shawn Nelson accused them of forcing them to show up after they stepped forward against Spitzer's actions as they advanced to the office. Miller claims she tried to protect the female prosecutors who were also sexually harassed with Spitzer's friends after claiming they were sexually harassed by former supervisor Gary Logalbo.
The former and current prosecutors of the office described the “challenging” and “harsh” environment within the prosecutor’s office, but some say they face the threat of being fired or demoted.
Miller said in his testimony that Spitzer and Nelson used “gender-based slander”, disrespectful to her and undermined her authority in the office.
According to her lawsuit, Miller claimed she had been concerned about Spitzer's violation of the Race Justice Act by raising questions about race while determining whether to sentence black defendants to death, while Spitzer used race just in case.
Miller said in court that Spitzer threatened to fire her close friends in the office and to remove the plans she led in revenge.
However, most of the trial focused on what happened shortly after several female prosecutors claimed they were sexually harassed by former police officers and Spitzer’s best man at the wedding.
When an internal county investigation confirmed the woman was harassed, the report determined Miller and his testimony by describing her position and gender. Afterwards, Miller testified, Spitzer targeted her and criticized her for writing notes at the executive meeting.
“You can see any time the subject appears, Tracy documented our meeting,” Spitzer testified. “There was a point in time for me to be curious, why do you seem to be honoring everything we are doing?”
Spitzer, who testified for several days during the trial, denied the charges. He acknowledged tensions within the DA's office after taking the position in 2018, but attributed the opposition to employees who supported former district attorney Tony Rackauckas.
“I know it will be painful, and it's painful,” Spitzer said in his testimony.
He said that was part of the reason why he chose Shawn Nelson as chief assistant district attorney when he first took office.
“I chose him because I'm going to fight, in the lion's nest,” Spitzer said.
But Miller testified that Nelson's actions also raised issues with the District Attorney's Office after allegations of sexual harassment were filed. For example, Prossex testified that during training for the manager’s sexual harassment, Nelson stood up and said “no victims.”
The county still faces eight sexual harassment lawsuits involving allegations against Logalbo.
“It's very important for the public to know what's going on,” Barnett said. “I believe our case is strong and we're right.”
