SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. – The trial date for the retaliation lawsuit filed by former District Attorney investigator Joseph Cipollini was moved up as lawyers and county officials negotiate a settlement, according to lawyers.
Cipollini’s lawyer Mark Packowicz said today that the trial was moved from Wednesday to April 14. He declined to make further comment.
Cipollini is the last of five separate lawsuits filed by former investigators who worked for DA’s office alleging retaliation or discrimination or both.
Ventura County’s Risk Manager Chuck Pode said there have been ongoing settlement discussion.
He said what Packowicz and the county’s lawyer Mark Pain comments last week to Judge Thomas Anderle about the case are correct.
“I am confident that the case is settled. I would be surprised if it were to fall apart,” Mark Palin told Anderle during a courtroom conference call last week
Since last year, Ventura County has paid more than $4 million in legal costs and fees including more than $2.1 million as damages to either settle one case and $1.3 million to pay a jury damages award against the county and DA’s office in another lawsuit.
Cipollini alleged that the District Attorney’s Office supervisors retaliated against him because he gave a disposition in the 2008 in a case involving former DA investigator Tammy Schwitzer, according to court records.
Cipollini also claims that the retaliation was because he gave a disposition in another DA investigator Robert Velasquez’s retaliation lawsuit against the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office. In addition, Cipollini stated he was retaliated for giving a disposition in the sexual discrimination lawsuit involving another DA female investigator Leslie Robertson.
Schweitzer’s lawsuit was later dismissed, and Robertson dropped her suit.