Relatives of victims of Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in the county’s history, protested Wednesday outside the offices of Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, decrying his praise of two prosecutors who worked on the case.
The families were angered when video recently surfaced of a retirement party in December for Dekraai’s original prosecutors, Scott Simmons and Dan Wagner, who are now in a private practice together. Spitzer had previously released a critical report accusing them of malpractice and negligence in the handling of Dekraai’s prosecution, which led to the so-called Jailhouse Snitch Scandal that upended Dekraai’s case.
Dekraai, who pleaded guilty to a killing spree targeting his ex-wife and friends at the Salon Meritage in Seal Beach, was on track for a death penalty prosecution until his attorney raised questions about the use of a snitch to create probable cause to wire Dekraai’s jail cell and get Dekraai on tape allegedly bragging about the murders.
As punishment for the snitch scandal, then-Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals, now an appellate court justice, prohibited prosecutors from pursuing the death penalty, and because Dekraai pleaded guilty, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Eight people died, and a ninth person survived the Oct. 12, 2011, attack. About 15 relatives of three of Dekraai’s victims attended Wednesday’s protest and wore face coverings with a hash tag of #Spitzerresign.
Bethany Webb, whose sister was killed and mother was wounded in the attack, told reporters, “This was an open and shut case and they started lying,” referring to the prosecution team.
“They cheated because it was their modus operandi,” Webb said. “We thought (Wagner and Simmons) were our friends. They were supposed to be taking care of us, but they didn’t.”
Webb called Spitzer a “parasite” who used the victims’ families to help him unseat former District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.
Spitzer told City News Service he attended the retirement party because Wagner and Simmons were longtime work friends.
“I didn’t know what the report would say,” Spitzer said. “They were friends of mine. I worked with them for years. It would be disrespectful for me not to go to their party. There would be no reason not to go just because I had started an inquiry about Dekraai.”
Spitzer said his attendance at the party showed “the independence of the report. The fact that I was there and didn’t boycott it proves the point that the report was independent.”
Paul Wilson, who campaigned on behalf of Spitzer, has been critical of him for promoting Wagner and not holding him and his partner, Simmons, accountable until they left office.
Wilson said he has kept multiple text messages from Spitzer, who, he said, befriended him during his election campaign. Wilson noted he agreed to do campaign ads and robo calls for Spitzer because he believed Spitzer would crack down on corruption.
“I really thought he was my friend,” Wilson said.
“He promised me that Dan Wagner and Scott Simmons had no business being in his office,” Wilson said.
Spitzer attended their retirement party, ladling praise on the two and putting the blame on Orange County sheriff’s deputies.
At the time, Spitzer had special counsel Patrick Dixon — a prosecutor with 37 years of experience with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office — and consultant Steve Danley, a former chief human resources officer and performance auditor for Orange County, working on a report about the Dekraai prosecution.
They concluded that Wagner and Simmons were so fearful Dekraai would try an insanity defense to avoid the death penalty that they improperly used a confidential informant to gain the incriminating comments.
Wilson, whose 47-year-old wife Christy Wilson was one of Dekraai’s victims, said Spitzer ran on a platform critical of Rackauckas for the “mishandling of the case.”
Wilson was angered that Spitzer promoted Wagner soon after he was sworn in, and said he would like the state Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Spitzer’s office.
Wilson also told reporters he was disappointed that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden tapped California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate because Harris, when she was California’s attorney general, declined to press charges against three Orange County sheriff’s deputies accused of perjuring themselves during the Dekraai evidentiary hearings.
“It is a very poor decision,” Wilson said.
Spitzer said at the retirement party that Rackauckas’ office did not do enough to defend the prosecutors at the time.
“That was perspective then but I didn’t have the benefit in hindsight of the report or its findings,” Spitzer said. “Now we have a whole different picture.”
Spitzer’s spokeswoman Kimberly Edds issued a statement that Wilson has “every right to be upset” that Dekraai was spared the death penalty because of the allegations of misconduct.
“But that frustration has morphed into an unrelenting scorched-earth campaign against the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and demands to fire people who have already left the office or were never even involved in that prosecution,” Edds said. “That is completely unreasonable.”
Edds also claimed Dekraai’s trial attorney, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, who is friends with Wilson, is aiming for a run for district attorney.
“Mr. Wilson and the man who defended his wife’s killer have not been shy about their campaign to turn Orange County into the next San Francisco by putting the rights of criminals over the rights of victims and replacing prosecutors with anti-incarceration advocates,” Edds said.
“The misconduct engaged in by the Dekraai prosecution team subjected the victims’ families to unnecessary trauma,” Edds said. “It is a travesty that Mr. Wilson, who has suffered unimaginable loss at the hands of a criminal, is now campaigning on behalf of an assistant public defender who wants nothing more than to run for district attorney so that he can throw the jail doors open and release criminals back into the streets without being held accountable.”
Sanders replied, “Mr. Spitzer gets caught on tape saying the exact opposite of what he said on the campaign trail. And because he does not have an explanation that makes the slightest sense, he launches an attack on a victim who dares to speak the truth having been personally betrayed. It’s a pretty shocking response.”
A message left with Simmons and Wagner was not immediately returned.
Dekraai’s ex-wife, 48-year-old Michelle Marie Fournier, was the first victim the 50-year-old gunman killed at the Salon Meritage at 500 Pacific Coast Highway, where she worked. The couple had been locked in a bitter child custody dispute.
Also killed in the salon were the shop’s owner, 62-year-old Randy Lee Fannin, Laura Webb Elody, 46, Christy Wilson, 47, Victoria Ann Buzzo, 54, Lucia Berniece Kondas, 65, and Michele Dashbach Fast, 47. After leaving the salon, Dekraai gunned down his last victim, 64-year-old David Caouette, as the victim sat in his Range Rover, parked next to the gunman’s vehicle.
Hattie Stretz, now 82, survived the bloodbath.
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