Is Steve Cooley running a Political Smear Machine out of the District Attorney's Office?

I wish the room would stop spinning.

Second in a series.

Sources inside the Los Angeles County District Attorneys’ office have informed us that Steve Cooley’s political smear machine is up and running.  This may be a throw back to the days when William H. Parker ran L.A. in a way that would make J. Edgar Hoover blush. 

Cooley has assigned staff who dedicate their energies and County time to attack those who dare to challenge his view of the world.

With Joe Scott enjoying his pension on a beach somewhere, one of his sleazy weapons was to unleash Deputy District Attorney David Berger to handle the “dirty work.”

Berger, who has been somewhat of a “butt boy” for Cooley for the past decade spends all his time on his obscure blogs, sending out fabricated accusations about one challenger or another.  On one day alone last week, Berger sent out 18 tweets from his faux twitter account.  He continuously attempted to smear fellow Deputy D.A.’s in the L.A. County Prosecutors Office with all sorts of half-truths, and fabricated allegations.  Berger would have you believe that he’s just expressing his first amendment rights, which he’s entitled to do. But common sense tells you that if he didn’t have the approval of his superiors, including Cooley and his joined-at-the-hip co-hort, Jacquelyn “Jackie” Lacey, he wouldn’t be attacking so fiercely.

But what’s it all about?  Why would an old, grrizzled politician, in the autumn of his career who’s been known to enjoy a cocktail or two after hours, and a veteran career prosecutor like Lacey, want to smear colleagues and friends?

As one observer noted, “The same arrogance he brought to the Attorney General’s race is employed every day at the top levels of the D.A.’s office. After  twelve years, Cooley thinks he owns the office. Jackie will do anything to get promoted. It’s time for a change."

The story takes us back to Cooley and Lacey’s hatred of a group of veteran Deputy District Attorneys in the D.A.’s office who had the audacity to form a labor organization that was designed to represent the employment interests of all deputies inside the office.  The "ADDA" or otherwise known as the Association of Deputy District Attorneys have struggled for years to organize an Association that would collectively represent their employment issues. Cooley did not want his deputies to organize for fear they could challenge his arrogant policies, and he would not be able to manipulate them so easily as he has done in the past. 

He engaged in retaliatory tactics by transferring perceived enemies to less desirable posts. He also issued poor performance evaluations to union leaders after they engaged in union-related activities.

According to California Lawyer Magazine “Steve Cooley Under Siege  - June 2011 edition” the Los Angeles County district attorney faces federal civil charges that he retaliated against union leaders and chilled participation in a nascent labor organization for deputy D.A’s.”  Take Robert Dver, a veteran prosecutor. Dver sought the advice of Jacquelyn Lacey, a close friend and a top official at the DA's office, before deciding whether to join the bargaining team of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA) in 2008. According to testimony he gave to the L.A. County Employee Relations Commission (ERCOM) before the federal suit was filed, Lacey warned Dver that Cooley disliked the newly certified prosecutors' union. But the top prosecutor told Dver that the union was going to be a disaster, and encouraged him to join two other deputy DAs in efforts to undermine the organization.

Lacey made a fautian bargain with Cooley.  If she agreed to support his union busting agenda, he would publicly promote her as his successor.  She held up her end of the bargain. Now he finds himself stuck promoting a candidate as his successor whom he’s told several members of the legal community “has no chance.” Ironically, with Cooley’s help, Lacey has only raised a measly $125,000.  Not nearly enough to run a highly contested L.A. County campaign.

In a preliminary injunction filed in March, U.S. District Court Judge Otis D. Wright called the evidence provided by the union against Cooley and Lacey "striking and rampant," and ordered Cooley’s office to stop "discriminating or retaliating against members of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys on the basis of their membership in ADDA."

And a November decision in the ERCOM proceedings identified "a deliberate and thinly disguised campaign" by the DA's office to "destroy" ADDA through a "pattern of antiunion conduct so overt and vehement, it harkens back to an earlier and less civil time in employer-employee relations."

It is unheard of for a Federal Court to issue an injunction against a sitting District Attorney. According to the “Memorandum of Understanding Re: Settlement” dated Sept. 19,2011 the county will pay the ADDA $125,000 for Cooley’s and Lacey’s wrongdoings, and will pay Dep. D.A. Marc Debbaudt $440,000 for the pain and suffering Cooley/Lacey caused him. And that’s just one plaintiff; there are three more plaintiffs involved now in settlement negotiations over the unlawful actions of Cooley/Lacey. Moreover, this settlement stipulates that the injunction is to be declared permanent and in full effect for as long as Cooley is the D.A. — “including both his current term and any subsequent terms.”

The County taxpayers are likely to get stuck paying the tab for $5 to $7 million dollars in civil damages due to the wrongful mismanagement conduct of Cooley and Lacey.

At a time when government services are being cut up and down, they're wasting taxpayer money to settle their personal misconduct. It's outrageous and the County Supervisors should refuse to pay it. What’s your opinion?