SANTA ANA (CNS) - Jury selection is scheduled to begin Wednesday in San Diego in the trial of a lawsuit filed by a retired high-ranking Orange County prosecutor who contends District Attorney Todd Spitzer retaliated against her for whistleblowing in a sexual harassment case.

Tracy Miller, who filed her lawsuit three years ago, was a 25-year veteran of the office with three years as a senior assistant district attorney when she left. She alleged in her lawsuit that Spitzer forced her to retire by "creating a hostile work environment."

When Miller filed a legal claim against her ex-boss, Spitzer responded by alleging Miller teamed up with fired prosecutor, Brahim Baytieh, who is now an Orange County Superior Court judge, to smear Spitzer as he ran for reelection.

"It is blatantly obvious that going into my reelection that both Baytieh and Miller coordinated efforts to embarrass me and deter me from my efforts to reverse the `win at all costs' mentality which involved violating the constitutional rights of defendants by cheating and failing to discover evidence to the defense," Spitzer said in a statement.

Spitzer accused Miller and Baytieh of being "indoctrinated by a 20- year prior administration that taught you how to cheat, seek revenge and eviscerate your enemies."

But Miller, who was the only woman in top management at the D.A.'s Office before she retired, said in her lawsuit that the hostile work environment "was created in retaliation for Miller's refusal to adopt race- based practices, her refusal to accept race-based attorney assignments, and her refusal to remain silent when race was offered as justification for Spitzer's decision-making process."

Much of her case revolves around the scandal involving prosecutor Gary LoGalbo, who was accused in two internal reports by a county-hired law firm of sexual and racial harassment before he retired. LoGalbo, who was best man at Spitzer's wedding, died before lawsuits over the alleged harassment went to trial.

Miller accused Spitzer in her lawsuit of undermining her efforts to protect the women who reported the sexual harassment by LoGalbo.

"Miller was punished for refusing to allow Spitzer to lionize the predator, gaslight, and further savage the reputation of the victims," her lawsuit claims.

Miller's lawsuit also alleges Spitzer attempted to block her from reporting his conduct in two death penalty cases that spurred scandals for what some considered racially charged comments in one of the cases and his intervention in a mass shooting case to dismiss a criminal complaint against the father of one of the victims.

The lawsuit also alleges county officials failed to stop the harassment and allowed "the victim shaming to run freely for all to witness."

Miller also accused Shawn Nelson, a former Orange County supervisor who worked as chief assistant district attorney and is now an Orange County judge, of "repeatedly" humiliating and belittling Miller during meetings.

She claims Nelson told her she was purposefully excluded from executive meetings.

"On one occasion, Spitzer yelled at Miller for over five minutes because the attorney general was hosting a meeting about an opioid case filed by the OCDA," the lawsuit alleged. "Spitzer, on account of Miller's gender, blamed her because he was upset at the attorney general. Spitzer stated that Miller was not cutting it as (an executive) and she should simply take his abuse and not defend herself against Spitzer. Spitzer's actions brought Miller to tears in the presence of her subordinate."

Another time in May of 2020, Spitzer and Nelson "yelled at Miller for over 10 minutes during an executive meeting because Miller allegedly did not put enough information in the subject line of an email," the lawsuit alleged.

The lawsuit also alleged that Spitzer told Miller, "Men and women speak different languages, Tracy. We don't understand each other."

And when Miller raised issues about LoGalbo to Nelson, he defended LoGalbo, the lawsuit alleged.

When Spitzer allegedly directed a write-up of one of the accusers for being dishonest, Miller reported it to human resources in February 2021 and then passed on another complaint of harassment to the human resources director.

"Later that same day, in an executive meeting, in retaliation for her protected activity, Nelson presented a plan to significantly diminish Miller's material responsibilities and effectiveness," the lawsuit alleged. She said a proposed new assignment amounted to a demotion.

She also accused Spitzer of sending the first internal probe of the harassment allegations to all of the office's employees, essentially outing her as one of the witnesses.

Miller said she was then frozen out by her fellow supervisors.

Bill Handel