The county is set to file a victim impact statement to the federal court that will decide sentencing for former county supervisor Andrew Do, detailing the negative impact officials say his crimes have had on the Orange County community.
The letter also asks for Do to be sentenced to the maximum prison time possible for the bribery charge he pleaded guilty to in October in an agreement he reached with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The county was pressed for time to submit the statement to be included in what’s called a pre-sentence report, which under federal rules needs to be delivered to Do 35 days before sentencing.
The victim impact statement is addressed to U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna, who presides over the case, County Counsel Leon Page explained during a special meeting Tuesday when the OC Board of Supervisors discussed the submission.
“Its purpose is for the board to express, in their own words, the impact that this crime had on the board and on the public; to inform the court, not just of the legal issues, but of the emotional and physical and financial consequences of the defendant’s misconduct,” Page said. “The purpose is to humanize the case. This isn’t just dollars and cents. There were real people … who went without because of this criminal behavior. So ultimately, this statement is intended to influence and persuade the judge.”
Do pleaded guilty to accepting at least $550,000 in bribes to direct millions of public dollars, mostly from his First District office’s discretionary funds, to the nonprofit Viet America Society. Of the $9.3 million earmarked for the group to serve meals to seniors in his district, only about 15% was spent on the meals, according to Do’s plea agreement.
Paul S. Meyer, Do’s attorney, when reached Tuesday for comment about the county’s plan to submit a victim impact statement, said, “It is inappropriate to make comment before sentencing.”
Do is scheduled for sentencing in June.
“Not only did the defendant abuse the privileges of his office to enrich himself, he did soat the expense and to the detriment of the voters that elected him to represent their interests,” the letter presented to the Board of Supervisors for approval says. “The extent of the betrayal of the public trust cannot be overstated — both as to defendant’s colleagues on this board and as to the people of Orange County.”
A majority of the supervisors agreed last week to ask the DOJ to reassess the potential prison time for Do.
On Tuesday, the board voted 3-1-1 to send in the victim impact statement and attach the letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi asking the Department of Justice to revisit Do’s plea agreement and possible sentencing. The majority also directed that an accounting of the charges that Do could have faced be added to the submission.
Supervisor Don Wagner voted against the additions and Supervisor Doug Chaffee abstained.
Supervisor Janet Nguyen argued that the draft presented at Tuesday’s special board meeting was watered down.
“We’re making changes and now downplaying our victim statement versus what we voted on a week ago,” Nguyen said. “The fact that we don’t have the max sentence request, it’s missing the crimes that he potentially could have been charged with in the plea agreement. We didn’t make that up. It was in the plea agreement.”
As part of Do’s plea agreement, the DOJ agreed not to prosecute him for conspiracy to defraud the United States, accepting bribes tied to federal funding and other charges.
Wagner said the additions were outside the scope of what a victim impact statement should include.
“We’re the victim. We got hurt. Our community activists didn’t have the resources because of what Do did,” Wagner said. “That’s the power of this statement, not coming in and saying, you could have charged wire fraud, you could have charged this, and you could have charged that. It’s not our role.”
Chaffee said he was abstaining because of his concern that the many additions to the original draft would make the statement less impactful and possibly result in a lesser sentence for Do.
“I feel we’re stronger,” he said, “if we speak as a victim.”