Friday, April 6, 2001 Suit names Trask, county A woman says she suffered for telling of asset-forfeiture flaws. She has no case, the district attorney says.

By Mike Kataoka
The Press-Enterprise
RIVERSIDE

District Attorney Grover Trask
A former Riverside County prosecutor has filed a federal civil-rights suit against District Attorney Grover Trask, the county and others, contending they retaliated against her when she reported that assets seized in drug cases were misspent or mishandled.

Diane Harrison's clash with the management of the district attorney's office became so hostile last year that she quit her 15-year employment with nowhere to go, the suit says. She now is a deputy district attorney in San Bernardino County and lives in Moreno Valley.

Harrison filed papers this week in Riverside's U.S. District Court. Others named as defendants are two of Trask's assistant district attorneys, Jay Orr and Randall Tagami; Harrison's immediate supervisor, Michele Levine; and Thomas Shanley, a district attorney's assistant chief investigator.

Speaking for himself and his colleagues named in the suit, Trask said Thursday that Harrison does not have a case.

"It seems to be extremely spurious in nature, and I'm surprised it was filed in federal court," he said. "We will take all appropriate actions to get it thrown out."

In January 1998, Harrison was assigned from general felony prosecution to the asset-forfeiture unit within the district attorney's office. In asset-forfeiture cases, law-enforcement officials are allowed to seize cash or property from people suspected of drug crimes.

The suit said Harrison found that asset-forfeiture records were in disarray and that management did not provide the staff necessary to sort it all out so the unit "literally could not function."

Management undermined Harrison's authority over the unit, creating more problems, and wrongly accused her of incompetence, the suit said.

The California attorney general's office in late 2000 notified Riverside County officials that they were improperly charging court filing fees to drug suspects who tried to reclaim their seized property.

That problem was indicative of the abuses tied to the handling of forfeiture of assets, according to Harrison's suit.

Long before Harrison was assigned to asset forfeitures, the district attorney's office improperly spent thousands of dollars in seized assets on office furniture and remodeling and for in-house awards and publications, the suit said.

There also was evidence that interest earned on seized assets had been "siphoned off" within the district attorney's office, Harrison alleged in the suit. She shared her concerns with state and federal officials and repeatedly warned her bosses that the office had not met asset-forfeiture reporting requirements, the suit said.

While not responding directly to allegations in Harrison's suit, Tagami said his office's asset-forfeiture practices and policies have been independently scrutinized.

"This issue of forfeiture has been investigated by the Department of Justice, they've given us a clean bill of health, and we're satisfied," the assistant district attorney said.

In February 2000, Harrison was removed from the asset-forfeiture unit for "not getting the job done" and transferred to drug court, which she considered a demotion, according to the suit. Harrison's complaints about her treatment, the suit said, triggered further hostility toward her.

Harrison alleges she suffered "horrible treatment and open disrespect" from Levine, her supervisor. The suit said Levine criticized Harrison for keeping a messy office and ridiculed Harrison's diagnosed adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

On March 7, 2000, Harrison alleged in the suit, she was told to sign a letter agreeing to turn over all documents and computer information related to her asset-forfeiture allegations and to keep the investigation confidential.

The suit said Harrison refused to sign the letter because she was concerned she was being set up to be fired, and resigned instead.

Gary Schons, a deputy attorney general, is named in the suit for allegedly instigating the order for Harrison to turn over evidence of wrongdoing. Schons declined comment Thursday.

The letter Harrison refused to sign, the suit said, was "an intentional attempt to deprive her of her ability to defend herself against unlawful retaliation and attack in the workplace and upon her professional reputation."

Harrison quit, the suit said, "due to the failure of Trask and others to protect her rights."

Mike Kataoka can be reached by e-mail at mkataoka@pe.com or by phone at (909) 782-7560.
Published -- Barb Chaplain, ARSCC http://members.home.net/bwarr1/index.htm (this site is down right now.)

http://www.geocities.com/bwarr_2000/ mirror site "Every week, every month, every year, every decade and now every century, Scientology does weird and stupid things to damage its own reputation." -Steve Zadarnowski "Comparing Scientology to a motorcycle gang is a gross, unpardonable insult to bikers everywhere. Even at our worst, we are never as bad as Scientology." -ex-member, Thunderclouds motorcycle "club"

Go Back