A Safer Bet

The Orange County public defender’s office has requested that the state attorney general handle an investigation into allegations of illegal gambling activities in its office. This would be a sensible way to proceed.

Public defenders and the Orange County district attorney’s office regularly lock horns in court on routine cases. It may well be that the district attorney could conduct a fair and impartial inquiry, but in the interest of perception, it would be best to have the investigation handled by a party that clearly can be seen as objective and outside the usual fray.

The investigation arises from disturbing allegations made last year by a former investigator in the public defender’s office who was fired in 1996 and who is suing for wrongful termination. Teri Ortal says that the firing occurred after she blew the whistle on alleged bookmaking and inflated caseload statistics.

She has painted a portrait of the office as a center of bookmaking activity, alleging that two investigators collected bets ranging from $5 to $1,000 from as many as 20 employees in the office. Further, she says the activity involved bookmakers, the posting of gambling sheets, and the use of county fax machines, telephones and cars to place bets.

There is another side to the story. The county’s top public defender, Carl Holmes, says that what went on is not unlike many businesses and workplaces, where people place simple bets in football pools. Moreover, Ortal’s superiors say that she used up to 30 hours a week of county time to operate a real estate computer software company.

The state attorney general’s office has been wary of involvement. Its initial reaction was that because the allegations centered on activity outside the central mission of the public defender’s operation, it was unlikely that the state would intervene. Maurice Evans, chief assistant district attorney, has said that he does not see a conflict for his shop, at least not at this point.

It still might be best to have this independent look at the goings-on in the public defender’s office. In the meantime, it would be a good idea to resolve this inquiry quickly to avoid further disruption in the work of the office.