A former high-level female Orange County prosecutor was awarded $3 million in damages on Thursday morning by a San Diego Superior Court jury that determined that she was targeted by DA Todd Spitzer and forced out of the office after she tried to help shield lower-level colleagues who had been sexually harassed by another DA supervisor.
Jurors deliberated for more than a day before reaching their verdict following a high-profile, two week trial that centered on allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation at the Orange County District Attorney’s office while also referencing a series of controversies under both the current and former DA administrations.
The jury found that both Spitzer and Shawn Nelson — Spitzer’s former second-in-command who is now an Orange County judge — participated in harassing conduct and that the County of Orange did not take reasonable steps to correct it.
The jury awarded former DA supervisor Tracy Miller $1 million for her future economic loss and $ 2 million for emotional distress. Jurors are expected to return in the afternoon, when they could consider additional punitive damages against Spitzer.
Representatives for Miller, Spitzer, Nelson and the county could not immediately be reached for comment.
Miller, over a more than two-decade-long career as a prosecutor, rose to the upper echelon of the OC DA office, becoming the highest-ranking woman in the organization.
When Spitzer took over as the elected DA in early-2019 — in the midst of an ongoing federal investigation into the office over a scandal involving the improper use of informants during the outgoing administration — he opted to keep Miller and other top prosecutors on his command staff, despite Spitzer’s heated criticism of his predecessor, and Miller’s prior boss, former DA Tony Rackauckas.
Miller, after what she described as effectively a forced retirement in 2021, filed a lawsuit against the county, Spitzer and Nelson. The resulting civil trial was held in Downtown San Diego in order to avoid a conflict of interest with Orange County judges who are now colleagues of Nelson and other witnesses who moved from the DA office to the bench.
Miller accused Spitzer and Nelson of targeting her with “gender-based slurs,” disrespecting her in ways he never treated male colleagues, undermining her in front of her subordinates and threatening to dismantle a well-known community anti-gang program she was instrumental in creating.
Spitzer and Nelson, Miller alleged, described her as “babysitting” her subordinates, humiliated her in front of executive staff members and routinely berated her, at one point leaving the former gang prosecutor in tears. Her friends described how someone who was normally known as “bubbly, outgoing and strong” suddenly became more “withdrawn, fearful and sad.” Spitzer and Nelson, Miller’s attorneys told jurors, had “broke her down.”
Spitzer and Nelson flatly denied the allegations. An attorney representing the two men and the county told jurors that Miller was never demoted and never suffered a loss of pay or job duties, despite being an at-will employee due to her high-level position. The attorney attributed Miller’s issues with Spitzer and Nelson to their higher expectations for employees after the pair took over the office.
Spitzer, in his own testimony, compared taking the reigns of the DA office to “going into battle in the lion’s den,” and explained he hired Nelson — a frequent rival when both were members of the county board of supervisors — because he wanted “someone on my side who was a warrior.” Spitzer said he and Nelson were focused on “righting the ship” after some prosecutors under the previous DA had “cheated to get convictions.”
In late 2020, sexual harassment allegations came to light involving then DA supervisor Gary Logalbo, who decades earlier was the best man at Spitzer’s wedding. Spitzer later testified that he had grown apart from Logalbo years earlier. But at least one of Logalbo’s accusers — as well as her supervisor — raised concerns at the time about Spitzer’s potential role in the Logalbo investigation and the possibility that their jobs could be in jeopardy.
County HR officials quickly took over the Logalbo investigation and Logalbo himself voluntarily left the DA’s office soon after being placed on leave. Logalbo died in 2021. A county report ultimately found that Logalbo harassed four female attorneys under his supervision.
Miller alleged that her relationship with Spitzer was further fractured after she cooperated with the investigator who was looking into the Logalbo allegations. She accused Nelson of criticizing the women who spoke out against Logalbo, describing him at one point saying Logalbo did not have any real victims and on another occasion saying one of the women was “chicken” for not coming forward sooner. Miller also accused Spitzer of improperly trying to get one of the accusers “written up” by her supervisor.
Spitzer and Nelson denied speaking out against or targeting the women who reported the sexual harassment by Logalbo. Spitzer, during his testimony, said he stayed away from the Logalbo investigation, leaving it to the county HR department.
Miller’s attorneys also told jurors that the alleged retaliation increased after she raised concerns about Spitzer’s actions in connection to a pair of high-profile capital murder cases involving Jamon Buggs, a Black man since convicted of killing a White couple in Newport Beach, and Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez, who was accused of killing four people during a mass shooting at a real estate office in Orange.
Spitzer, while discussing the Buggs case with his top prosecutors and advisors, asked about the race of Buggs’ former girlfriend and allegedly said he “knows many Black people who enhance their status by only dating White women.”
Spitzer later explained that he was only trying to determine the racial overtones of the case. A trial judge found that Spitzer violated the state Racial Justice Act. But that same judge also determined that the DA’s office had taken proactive steps to remedy any harm by taking the death penalty for Buggs off the table.
In the Gonzalez case, Spitzer informed Miller and other top DA officials during a command staff meeting that during a phone conversation with the father of one of Gonzalez’s alleged victims, the father had mentioned an unrelated criminal case in which he was already represented by an attorney. Spitzer told his command staff that he had been unaware of the father’s criminal case, but Miller and the other senior prosecutors told Spitzer that they had to inform Gonzalez’s defense attorney about the DA’s phone conversation with the father.
Gonzalez — who was shot in the head by police — was later found not competent to stand trial and was sent to a state hospital for treatment.
Miller believed that Spitzer during an interview with a DA investigator left out key details about his phone call with the father of the victim. Spitzer testified that he was frustrated that Miller didn’t just come to him and ask him to do a follow-up interview.