BY RAUL HERNANDEZ
SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. — Attorneys representing a veteran investigator involved in a retaliation lawsuit against his former bosses at the District Attorney’s Office subpoenaed a judge to testify about what he knows concerning allegations that a former Oxnard police chief was sexually involved with a female criminal defendant.
Former District Attorney Investigator Mark D. Volpei is alleging that former Police Chief John Crombach was allegedly having sexual relations Michelle Garcia, an alleged female criminal defendant that his department investigated for fraud.
Attorneys Lanny and Terry Tron and Mark Pachowicz, who are representing Volpei, argue in legal papers that they need Ventura County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bennett to testify about what he knows about a Nov. 13, 2007 meeting where Volpei made the disclosure about Crombach to Bennett and other supervisors, including James Ellison who was District Attorney Greg Totten‘s then second-highest-in-command until he retired.
The Garcia case was sent to the district attorney by the Oxnard Police Department for possible prosecution.
It was assigned to Volpei for further investigative work.
Volpei maintains that the Garcia case findings along with two other separate and unrelated investigations resulted in coverups and threats against him. He states that the harassment and retaliation by DA superiors came after his investigations indicated official misconduct and possible crimes involving high-profile criminal cases.
Volpei claims he was forced to quit his job in 2010 after the harassment became unbearable and no accommodations were made for a work-related injury, the lawsuit states. He began working with the DA’s office in 1994.
“The campaign of retaliation against Volpei included frivolous internal investigations, disparate treatment, and lessening of job responsibilities and duties,” according court documents.
Recent efforts by Crombach’s lawyer Megan Winter on behalf of her client to keep Bennett from giving testimony at a deposition failed.
Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderle denied a motion by Winter to quash the subpoena issued by Volpei’s lawyers. Judge Anderle set Volpei’s trial for Oct. 28.
He also ordered the depositions of more than 10 witnesses, including District Attorney Greg Totten, be completed by the end of August.
Volpei’s lawyer, Terry Tron, of Camarillo, said in an interview they haven’t scheduled Bennett’s disposition yet, which she says is crucial to the case.
Winter, who is with the law firm of Slaughter and Reagan in Ventura, didn’t return calls seeking comment. But in court papers, Winter denies the allegations against Crombach.
Volpei’s attorneys are expected to subpoena Crombach to get his testimony that they say is also crucial to support Volpei’s allegations of harassment and retaliation.
“We are not trying to drag him through the mud,” Terry Tron said in an interview. “We are just trying to get out the facts.”
After leaving the Oxnard Police Department, Crombach, 60, went to work as Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean’s assistant sheriff but resigned in March.
He had worked at the Sheriff’s Department for more than three years.
In response to Volpei’s allegations, defense attorneys who are representing the District Attorney’s Office and the county maintain that Volpei was never demoted and neither his salary nor his benefits were reduced.
“Plaintiff’s job duties were neither lessened nor increased. Plaintiff was never disciplined,” the defense lawyers stated in court paper
Volpei’s is one of five district attorney investigators who filed discrimination and retaliation lawsuits against the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
One former district attorney investigator Leslie Robertson dropped her lawsuit, and a court dismissed former district attorney investigator Tammy Schwitzer’s lawsuit.
Another lawsuit was tried three years ago and former DA investigator Robert Velasquez was awarded $1.3 million as damages for retaliation.
The trial of another former investigator Joseph Cipollini is pending. But Judge Anderle indicated that he will try the Cipollini case immediately after the Volpei trial.
The Volpei, Velasquez and Cipollini cases were transferred to the Santa Barbara Courthouse after all the judges in Ventura County recused themselves.
Defense Lawyers Want Volpei’s Lawyer Tossed Out of the Case
Meanwhile, the defendants’ lawyer Mark Palin and Edward Ho, with the Cerritos-based law firm of Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud and Romo, filed legal papers to get Volepei’s lawyer Mark Pachowicz tossed out of the case.
Defense attorneys are alleging conflict of interest, maintaining that Pachowicz was a former Ventura County prosecutor, and they are defending the county in this lawsuit.
But plaintiff’s lawyers maintain that Pachowicz worked for the state of California as a prosecutor and wasn’t a county employee. Also defense lawyers stated that Pachowicz while a senior deputy district attorney worked with Volpei on some high-profile cases, including one involving the motorcycle gang mentioned in Volpei’s lawsuit.
Attorney Terry Tron said defense attorneys never raised the conflict-of-interest issue at Velasquez’s trial, saying this was simply a delaying tactic.
“They want to delay, delay and delay and push this out as far as possible,” she said.
Palin has declined to comment.
Volpei’s Lawsuit and His Allegations of Crimes, Coverups and Misconduct at DA’s Office
In his lawsuit, Volpei is also alleging that the District Attorney’s Office engaged in a cover up in 2001.
In that case, Volpei claims that while conducting a criminal investigation he learned that an ex-girlfriend of a high-ranking official with the district attorney was providing confidential information to a member of a notorious motorcycle gang facing felony charges, according to court documents.
Volpei also claims he provided the recorded statements to his supervisors but was told that the possible “exculpatory information,” which was documented in two separate reports, would not be given to the attorneys representing the criminal defendants.
“As a result of Volpei’s disclosures about unethical and possibly criminal behavior of the defendants, defendants retaliated against Volpei including disparate treatment and downgrading of job status,” the lawsuit states.
In 2007, Volpei alleges that the DA’s office covered up his investigation that Crombach was having sexual relations with Garcia.
Volpei alleges he was reprimanded severely for disclosing this relationship and possible official misconduct.
“Defendants chastised Volpei for documenting the relationship of the highest ranking police officer with the defendant,” Volpei’s lawyers allege in court papers. He also stated that his superiors refused to give this alleged exculpatory evidence to Garcia’s defense attorney.
Defendants ordered Volpei not to produce his police reports detailing the relationship to anyone, Volpei alleges in court papers.
“As a result of Volpei’s unwillingness to remain silent when confronted with the defendants’ unlawful demand, defendants retaliated against Volpei, including disparate treatment and further job reductions in job duties,” court papers state.
In 2008, Volpei states that he gave pre-trial testimony in the Tammy Schwitzer and Leslie Robertson discrimination lawsuits, which resulted in him being subjected to workplace retaliation, according to court papers.
Also in 2008, Volpei claims that he was assigned a criminal investigation involving the Ventura County Public Guardian’s Office, court records indicate.
The Public Guardian handles hundreds of cases involving elderly and disabled people who are under the conservatorship of that agency.
Volpei claims that he learned of the “misappropriation and mismanagement” of funds and assets by employees of that agency.
“Volpei disclosed his findings in a report to defendant Greg Totten, one of his superiors and to others at the” the DA’s office, Volpei states in a petition.
He claims he was ordered to limit his investigation to those employees at the lowest level of management.
“Volpei’s internal documents were censored and corrected by defendants to minimize and exclude information that exposed the magnitude of thefts and mismanagement at that agency,” the lawsuit states. “Volpei was ordered to disregard the evidence as to management and to investigate the lowest level of mismanagement.”