SANTA ANA–Today, the Orange County Office of Independent Review (OIR) disclosed that it has opened an investigation into District Attorney Todd Spitzer. The OIR is tasked under county law with investigating law enforcement misconduct.
“Todd Spitzer is too busy committing crimes to fight crime,” said former Marine Judge Advocate Pete Hardin. “He lied to the judge and kept the victims in the dark in a desperate effort to cover up his racist remarks. Lying to the court is a felony, it’s prosecutorial misconduct, and it’s the exact behavior he promised to clean up when he ran for office in the wake of the informant scandal.”
The investigation comes on the same day the Thurgood Marshall Bar Association demanded Todd Spitzer’s resignation noting that, “DA Spitzer shows no remorse” for his record of racism. The Thurgood Marshall Bar Association joins the California NAACP, National Urban League, National Action Network Orange County, and numerous other groups in calling for Spitzer to step down. Spitzer has also lost the endorsement of every major county District Attorney in California.
A new ethics complaint made to the California State Bar was also announced today regarding Spitzer’s practice of lying about endorsements, lying about his prosecutorial record, and lying about awards that he never received.
About Pete Hardin
Current Orange County District Attorney Republican Todd Spitzer’s tenure has been defined by scandal. Most recently, Spitzer made racist remarks when discussing whether or not to seek the death penalty against a Black man. Four women in Spitzer’s office have filed claims asserting Spitzer promoted an employee and close friend despite having been made aware of the sexual harassment complaints against him. Spitzer later allowed the employee, who was the best man at his wedding, to retire with top flight benefits. Spitzer also attempted to drop sexual assault charges against high-profile defendants, leading a judge to remove him from the case. Survivors of the sexual assault survivors were “dragged through the mud” and “grossly mistreated” by Spitzer for two and a half years, leading two of them to abandon their case.
Spitzer has been involved in an evidence booking scandal, a jailhouse informant scandal, and has defamed a victim of OC’s deadliest mass shooting as retaliation for peaceful protest. Spitzer has also defended a DNA collection program known informally as “Spit and Acquit” that coerces defendants to give up their DNA to law enforcement, a practice the ACLU has called “unconstitutional.”
Pete Hardin is a former Judge Advocate in the U.S. Marine Corps, Deputy District Attorney, Special Assistant United States Attorney, and one of Southern California’s leading litigators running for Orange County District Attorney. Pete entered public service when, in 2005, he earned his commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. A combat veteran, Pete served in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012 as a member of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion. Pete is a member of the Democratic Party.
Orange County’s rapidly changing electorate has led Democrats to now outnumber Republicans in Orange County holding a 4.1% voter registration advantage.
