Two Black leaders with Orange County ties are voicing their support for Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer following allegations that Spitzer made racially charged remarks during a review of a potential death-penalty case, with Spitzer himself on Monday, Feb. 21, publicly stating his regret for what he described as an “inartful comment.”
The Rev. Mark Whitlock, a civil rights leader and former Orange County pastor, and Bobby McDonald, president of the Black Chamber of Orange County, both defended Spitzer in statements released Monday, after reports of racial comments by Spitzer led other district attorneys — including those in Riverside, San Diego and Alameda counties — to withdraw their support for Spitzer’s re-election bid.
According to internal memos first leaked to the media and then unsealed by a judge, Spitzer, during a discussion of whether to seek the death penalty against Jamon Buggs, a Black man accused of killing a White couple, inquired about the race of Buggs’ previous girlfriends and said he “knows many black people who enhance their status by only dating ‘white women.’”
The comments caused a furor in the Orange County legal community, were condemned by the California and Hawaii chapter of the NAACP and led one of Spitzer’s challengers in the June 7 primary for the district attorney’s seat to call for his resignation.
On Monday afternoon, Rev. Whitlock and McDonald issued statements supporting Spitzer.
Rev. Whitlock — who built a large African-American congregation at Christ Our Redeemer AME Church in Irvine before leaving to oversee Reid Temple, a megachurch in Glenn Dale, Maryland — said Spitzer has been a friend for more than 25 years and “is not a racist.”
“I too feel the remarks were insensitive, inappropriate and should have no bearing on the Black defendant’s case,” Whitlock said in a statement. “But I also believe this one improperly made racial remark should not redefine a person’s career. …
“My Christianity teaches forgiveness, and not to throw stones to cancel a person’s career and character,” Whitlock added. “I believe this is a teachable moment and not a cancel Todd Spitzer opportunity.”
McDonald, whose organization advocates for Black businesses in the local community, described Spitzer as a great district attorney “not only for the Black community, but all people of color and Orange County residents in general.”
McDonald said it “saddens me to see race be so casually and inappropriately used as the go-to political weapon to club your adversaries. …
“I am grateful we have a District Attorney who is willing to have tough conversations and give serious consideration to how racism may have impacted a particular case,” McDonald said in a statement.
Spitzer, in his own statement, indicated that he had been trying to determine the potential racial overtones of the case but in the process had “used an example that was insensitive.”
“I am not perfect, but an in artful comment during a hours-long debate in a double murder case is not reflective of my core beliefs or the years I have spent fighting to make our society more equitable and our communities safe for everyone,” Spitzer said in the statement.
Former Senior Assistant District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh, who wrote the memo outlining the alleged racially charged comments, was fired by Spitzer a week before the comments became public.
Spitzer has said he dismissed Baytieh over allegations that Baytieh withheld evidence in a murder case, resulting in a conviction being overturned. But Baytieh’s defenders contend he was actually fired for being a whistleblower regarding the racial comments.
According to the Baytieh memo, others in the DA’s office believed that Buggs’ defense attorney should have been informed of Spitzer’s comments under the Racial Justice Act, which allows lawyers to challenge a conviction based on racial bias.
Spitzer disagreed, and he removed everyone at the meeting — including himself — from handling the Buggs case.
A Newport Beach police supervisor took the unusual step of directly writing a memo to the judge presiding over the Buggs case raising concerns that the DA’s office was trying to “cover-up” the racial comments made by Spitzer and contending that prosecutors had gone behind the back of the victims and police investigators by informing the court and the defense that they would not be seeking the death penalty against Buggs.
On Saturday, the mother of Darren Partch — one of the two people Buggs is accused of killing — criticized Spitzer for committing a “perversion of justice” by removing the death penalty, and accused the prosecutor of trying to hide his racial comments.
Spitzer has denied trying to hide the comments, which he has alleged were mischaracterized by Baytieh.
Buggs, a personal trainer from Huntington Beach, is awaiting trial for the killings of Partch, a 38-year-old former pro hockey player, and Wendi Miller, a 48-year-old local activist. If convicted, Buggs faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Source: Orange County Register
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