Supreme Court declines to reinstate Raabe's conviction

In all, six Orange County officials were charged, and the 41 days Raabe spent locked up before posting bail were the most any official spent behind bars.

The case came to the high court in December, when the state attorney general's office asked the justices to decide whether an appeals court in October properly threw out Raabe's conviction. Raabe was sentenced to three years after being convicted of concealing the county's risky investment strategy by shifting into hidden county accounts nearly $90 million in interest earnings that should have gone to local cities and school districts.

The county's high-risk, high-profit portfolio eventually lost $1.64 billion, which forced it to seek federal bankruptcy protection in December 1994.

The appeals panel said that then-District Attorney Mike Capizzi's office had "overwhelming" conflicts of interest that prevented Raabe from getting a fair trial. Raabe's sentence was stayed pending his appeal.

But none of the seven high court justices Wednesday voted in their weekly private conference to review the decision by the Santa Ana-based 4th District Court of Appeal.

State prosecutor Douglas P. Danzig said the state was mulling over whether it would seek a new trial, which is allowed under California court rules.

"We're considering what will be our next step," Danzig said.

Raabe attorney Roberta K. Thyfault said the issue was about whether her client received a fair trial, "and he did not."

"We welcome an opportunity to have a fair trial in the case," Thyfault said.

Raabe declined comment.

The appeals court said that Capizzi's office may have had "an ax to grind against the defendant." The three-judge panel noted that the bankruptcy forced Capizzi, who is now a private attorney, to reduce staffing, initiate a hiring freeze and to postpone salary increases.<