(Posted May 22)
BY RAUL HERNANDEZ
SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. – Attorneys agreed to settle a lawsuit filed against the Ventura County District Attorney by a former DA investigator who alleges that he was retaliated against after reporting official misconduct and alleged crimes.
Attorneys told Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderle that they reached a settlement in the Mark D. Volpei. this morning. They said the terms of the settlement have to be ironed out and then approved by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.
Last month, Anderle, who is the presiding judge in Dept. 3, had set Volpei’s trial for Oct. 28 after attorneys told the judge that there was no possibility they could settle this case.
Plaintiff and former DA veteran investigator Volpei alleged that he had was forced to quit his job in 2010 after the harassment, frivolous internal investigations against him, reduction of job duties and disparate treatment became unbearable.
He claims the harassment was triggered after he discovered, during an investigation, official misconduct and alleged crimes that he reported to his superiors at the DA’s Office who allegedly engaged in a cover up.
Volpei maintains that they didn’t do anything and that he was told by his supervisor to keep quiet about his allegations. In one case. Volpei alleges that he was ordered to rewrite his investigative findings that some higher ups in Ventura County’s Public Guardian’s Office were also involved in the mismanagement and misappropriation of money.
Volpei, who began working at the District Attorney’s Office in 1994, said in the lawsuit that he was forced to retire and go on medical disability on July 10, 2010.
The DA’s office has denied these allegations, adding that Volpei was never demoted, disciplined or had his salary or benefits reduced.
Also named as defendants in this case were Ventura County, District Attorney Greg Totten along with other past and current employees.
In an interview after today’s hearing, defense Attorney Mark Palin declined to comment on why they decided to settle the case.
“I can’t make any comments on the settlement. There is confidentiality provision. There is a confidentiality agreement and all parties agreed not to talk about the settlement. So I can’t help you,” Palin said.
Outside the courtroom, Volpei’s lawyers Lanny and Terry Tron said they are pleased that a settlement had been reached.
“It adds some closure to this part of Mark Volpei’s life,” said Lanny Tron. “He was an Investigator of the Year, highly regarded in the DA’s office. He had to cut his career short and as a result of cutting his career short, he thought the county was at fault.”
The Trons said they are happy with the terms of the settlement.
“Obviously, we wouldn’t have agreed and recommended it to our client if it was something we didn’t think it was ultimately in his best interest,” said Terry Tron.
Lanny Tron said the settlement was reached this morning before court began at 8:30 a.m.
“The county wouldn’t pay money if they didn’t believe that there was merit to his case,” said Lanny Tron
The Trons said the terms of the settlement are confidential but some of the details could come to light.
“It’s been our experience that public entities can’t keep everything confidential but we are trying to iron-out the details in that regard,” said Lanny Tron. “We haven’t yet finalized the terms of the confidentiality if there are any.”
Lawyers were scheduled to be in court today after defense attorneys filed a motion to remove the Trons along with Volpei’s other lawyer Mark Pachowicz from the case, citing a number of conflicts of interest. Pachowicz wasn’t in court today.
Defense attorneys had maintained in court papers a number of conflicts of interest , including that Pachowicz, who was a former Ventura DA prosecutor and Volpei worked closely on a high-profile case prosecuted by the Ventura DA involving the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club, according to court documents.
But Judge Anderle tentatively denied the motion Wednesday afternoon to disqualify Volpei’s lawyers.
“They were trying to disqualify all of us. We opposed that,” Terry Tron said.
Lanny Tron believes that the judge’s tentative ruling to deny the motion to disqualify them triggered an offer by defense attorneys to settle the case.
“It motivated the county to settle the case,” said Lanny Tron.
Volpei and four district attorney investigators filed discrimination and retaliation lawsuits against the DA
Volpei’s is one of five district attorney investigators who filed discrimination and retaliation lawsuits against the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office in recent years.
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. Velasquez was represented by Pachowicz and Lanny Tron.
The trial of another former investigator Joseph Cipollini is set for mid-November and will take 30 days to try, said Lanny Tron.
Cipollini is being represented by Pachowicz.
The Volpei, Velasquez and Cipollini cases were transferred to the Santa Barbara Courthouse after all the judges in Ventura County recused themselves.
Volpei’s Lawsuit and His Allegations of Crimes, Cover ups and Misconduct at DA’s Office
In his lawsuit, Volpei is 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 stated that 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 former Oxnard Police Chief Crombach was having sexual relations with Michelle Garcia, a criminal defendant in a fraud case that Oxnard police were investigating.
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.
Crombach, through court papers filed by his attorney, Megan Winter, denied the allegations. Winter didn’t return calls seeking comment.
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.”