Orange County leaders have approved nearly $2 million in proposed settlements with two prosecutors who reported sexual harassment at the district attorney’s office, the latest payouts tied to a disgraced former supervisor that push the combined total to nearly $12 million dollars.
The Board of Supervisors approved a $995,000 settlement with Clarisse Magtoto and a $988,000 settlement with Amy Tallakson for allegations tied to ex-Senior Assistant District Attorney Gary Logalbo, once a close friend of District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
The combined payouts of jury awards and settlements related to Logalbo is already nearly double a proposed $6 million universal settlement with all the accusers that county leaders turned down more than five years ago.
And the price tag is expected to grow.
The settlements with the two prosecutors were opposed by supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen, according to county records. The agreements still need to be signed off by unspecified parties.
The sexual harassment charges surfaced in late 2020. Logalbo had been the best man at Spitzer’s wedding decades ago, though the DA has said they had grown apart. Logalbo retired after being placed on leave and died in 2021.
The county’s human resources department investigated and ultimately decided that Logalbo sexually harassed four female attorneys under his supervision. Those prosecutors and others in the office who aided the investigation were angered when a report outlining the harassment investigation — complete with potentially identifying details of the participants — was publicly released. They alleged that the release was retaliation against those who aided the Logalbo investigation.
Spitzer has repeatedly denied protecting Logalbo or targeting the women who reported the sexual harassment.
In 2021, risk assessment attorneys working for the county negotiated a $6 million settlement that would have resolved all of the Logalbo cases with six-figure payouts for each accuser. That universal settlement was rejected by the supervisors and an outside law firm was hired to defend the county, representatives of some of the accusers say.
Last year, a lawsuit brought by Tracy Miller — a veteran prosecutor who was the highest ranking woman at the district attorney’s office before she described being forced into retirement for trying to protect the Logalbo accusers — was the first of the Logalbo lawsuits to go to trial. A San Diego jury awarded Miller $3 million, and a judge later awarded her $1.5 million in attorney fees.
In mid-February, a second San Diego jury awarded Bethel Cope-Vega — a veteran Orange County prosecutor — $3.5 million after finding that Logalbo had repeatedly sexually harassed her, including making late night phone calls asking what she was wearing and saying she was naked in his dreams. A decision on how much Cope-Vega will receive in attorney fees has not yet been made.
Last month, the O.C. supervisors approved settling Logalbo lawsuits filed by Deputy District Attorney Mallory Miller and former prosecutor Shabnum Azizi for $925,000 apiece.
The last outstanding Logalbo lawsuit was filed by former Orange County public defender Mohammad Abuershaid, who alleges that Logalbo referred to him as a “terrorist.”
The estimated combined cost also doesn’t account for funds county leaders used to pay outside lawyers to defend the Logalbo lawsuits.
Officials with the Orange County district attorney’s office have blamed the recent settlements, as well as the jury verdict in Cope-Vega’s lawsuit, not only on Logalbo but also on county counsel Leon Page, whose office handles legal matters for the Board of Supervisors and the various county departments.
“The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has always supported the victims of sexual harassment and their right to sue and receive compensation for their damages,” DA spokeswoman Kimberly Edds wrote in a statement. “The OCDA has, and continues to, advocate for all its employees to be free of discrimination and harassment.
“This settlement is about the harassment engaged in by a former senior assistant deputy district attorney; it is also a condemnation of the actions of county counsel,” she said.
“He hired an outside investigator who threatened our employees with termination if they did not participate in the investigation and promised them confidentiality,” Edds added. “Then county counsel went on to publicly humiliate and victim-shame these women by deeming the confidential report a public document, failing to adequately protect their identities in that public document and then releasing it to the media. We are not in any way surprised by this settlement or the dollar amount since county counsel broke its promises to these women and betrayed their trust.”
County officials have declined to talk about the district attorney’s office allegations regarding county counsel, citing a policy not to discuss pending litigation and settlements.