A former high-level female prosecutor deserves more than $4 million in damages for allegedly being forced out by Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer over her efforts to protect lower-level colleagues who had suffered sexual harassment by another DA supervisor, an attorney for the woman told jurors on Tuesday, June 3 at the close of a high-profile civil trial.
A San Diego Superior Court jury late Tuesday began deliberating over whether Tracy Miller — a veteran prosecutor who at the time of her 2022 departure was the highest-ranking woman in the DA office — was targeted by Spitzer and his former second-in-command, Shawn Nelson, in order to protect Gary Logalbo, a then DA-supervisor who was facing sexual harassment allegations. The trial is being held in San Diego since Nelson — and other witnesses — have since become Orange County Superior Court judges.
Miller contends that Spitzer and Nelson, beginning in 2019, targeted her with “gender-based slurs,” disrespected and undermined her in front of lower-level prosecutors and threatened to dismantle an anti-gang program she was instrumental in creating. She described Spitzer humiliating and berating her, at least once to the point of tears, and described her “babysitting” employees she was supervising.
In one instance, Miller testified, Spitzer asked her in the middle of an executive meeting in front of male colleagues what size tampons she used, explaining he was curious because he needed to buy tampons for his daughter. Miller’s friends described how the normally “bubbly, outgoing and strong” prosecutor suddenly became more “withdrawn, fearful and sad.”
“Mr. Spitzer knew about it, he allowed it and Mr. Nelson supported it,” Attorney Bijan Darvis, during closing arguments, told jurors of the alleged harassment and retaliation.
“Once these two came in the office they broke her down,” the attorney added. “The boss hated her and made it known.”
Miller also described Spitzer attempting to target one of the women who had accused Logalbo of harassment and Nelson claiming that one of the women was a “chicken” who should have come forward sooner. Logalbo voluntarily left the DA’s Office after being placed on leave and died in 2021. A county report found that Logalbo had harassed four female attorneys under his supervision.
Spitzer and Nelson flatly denied the allegations, with Spitzer testifying that he stayed away from the Logalbo investigation, which was run by county HR officials.
Attorney Tracey Kennedy, who is representing the county, Spitzer and Nelson, told jurors during closing arguments that Miller was never written up, demoted or hit with a loss of pay or job duties, despite being an at-will employee within the DA office. The attorney said Miller did not like the change in expectations when Spitzer and Nelson took over control of the DA office.
“She (Miller) had a lot of responsibilities and at no time were those responsibilities diminished,” Kennedy said.
“Things changed when Mr. Spitzer became DA,” the attorney added. “Expectations were higher.”
Spitzer, during his own testimony, described taking over a scandal-plagued office in 2019 and picking Nelson — with whom he had previously butted heads when both served on the county board of supervisors — because he felt like he was “going into battle in the lion’s den.” Spitzer acknowledged, however, that he opted to leave in place the existing leadership team, including Miller, after he took office.
Spitzer said he had grown apart from Logalbo by the time he took over the DA’s office. He acknowledged that one of the Logalbo accusers — as well as her supervisor — expressed concern about Spitzer’s potential role in Logalbo’s investigation and the potential that there jobs could be in jeopardy. But Spitzer denied retaliating against anyone.
Testimony in the civil trial also touched on allegations that Spitzer made racially charged comments in the criminal case against Jamon Buggs, a Black man convicted of killing a White couple in Newport Beach — and that he had improper contact with a man tied to the criminal case against Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez, the man accused of shooting to death four people at a real estate office in Orange in 2021.
While discussing the Buggs case behind closed doors, Spitzer 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 said he was only trying to determine the racial overtones of the case, though a trial judge found that Spitzer had violated the state Racial Justice Act. That judge also determined the DA’s Office had taken proactive steps to remedy any harm by taking the death penalty off of the table.
In the Gonzalez case, Miller said, Spitzer had an improper phone conversation with the father of one of Gonzalez’s alleged victims in which the father mentioned an unrelated criminal case he was facing in which he was already represented by an attorney.
Spitzer testified that prior to the phone call he wasn’t aware of the criminal charges the father was facing and ended the call when the father brought the charges up. Spitzer’s command staff told him that he needed to inform defense attorneys representing Gonzalez about the phone call with the father. But Miller testified that she believed Spitzer didn’t disclose key parts of the phone call when later talking to a DA investigator.
Miller’s attorneys allege that the alleged retaliation against her increased after she raised concerns about Spitzer’s actions in the cases of Buggs and Gonzalez.