Prosecutor Will Ask Judge to Set Retrial for Carmony

Deputy Dist. Atty. Brent Romney will ask a Superior Court judge today to set a new trial date for Republican campaign aide Rhonda Carmony, whose trial in June on three felony charges resulted with a hung jury.

Romney said Thursday that he will ask Judge Francisco P. Briseno to set the new trial to begin after Carmony’s Aug. 20 marriage to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach). The couple are planning to be married at St. Etienne de Baigorry in the Basque region of France.

Carmony is accused of breaking election laws in fall of 1995 to help a Democratic spoiler candidate qualify for a special election that recalled Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) and replaced her with Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach). Carmony is Rohrabacher’s campaign manager.

She maintained during her trial that she did nothing wrong during a GOP plan to assist Democrat Laurie Campbell, who testified that Carmony had a minor role compared to other GOP aides. Prosecutors contended that Carmony purposely broke election laws to shield the identity of the Republicans helping Campbell.

A jury split 10-2, 10-2 and 9-3 in favor of conviction on the three counts.

Carmony’s attorney, Creighton Laz, said he will push for an October or November trial date. He said the decision for a new trial wasn’t a surprise. “Obviously, we think they should [dismiss the case] but I didn’t think they’d walk away from it,” Laz said.

Laz said he and Romney have agreed to request a postponement of Carmony’s Aug. 17 trial date in an unrelated Municipal Court case until after the felony trial. Carmony faces seven misdemeanor counts stemming from a committee she formed in 1990 that sent a mailer critical of a candidate in a Diamond Bar City Council race. She has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Romney said he is willing to let the misdemeanor case follow the felony trial if they can be wrapped up soon.

“We’d like to get these cases done,” said Romney, a probable candidate next year for district attorney.

Rohrabacher and GOP activists have accused Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi of political grandstanding by making felonies of violations they called the campaign equivalent of traffic tickets.

Rohrabacher campaign chairman James Righeimer said Thursday that Capizzi is punishing Carmony and Baugh, who faces 18 counts of alleged violations from the same election, to further his 1998 statewide campaign for attorney general.