O.C. D.A. made racist comments in case of Black defendant, former colleague alleges

Todd Spitzer pictured in front of his office in 2019. Former prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh alleged in a memo dated Dec. 3 that during a meeting of top prosecutors on Oct. 1, Spitzer said that he knows “many black people who get themselves out of their bad circumstances and bad situations by only dating white women.” Spitzer was discussing the case of a Black man, Jamon Buggs, charged with fatally shooting two people, allegedly because of jealousy over an ex-girlfriend, who is white, according to the memo. What he actually said, he told The Times, was that he has seen Black men date white women to “improve their stature in the community.” Spitzer fired Baytieh, who was once a close advisor, last week, citing an investigation into whether Baytieh withheld evidence from defense attorneys in a different murder case. According to the memo, which was addressed to defense attorneys in the Buggs case, Spitzer allegedly said he “knew for sure that this black student did so on purpose to get himself out of his bad circumstances and situations.” Spitzer contends he said that the student dated white women “to enhance his status.” “The only thing I stated was that I have seen Black men date white women in certain circles in order to have others around them be more accepting,” Spitzer wrote in a Jan. 30 letter filed in Orange County Superior Court. Superior Court Judge Gregg Prickett had said the case was “presumptively a death case.” Baytieh was once such a close advisor to Spitzer that the district attorney called him his “north star.” Last week, Spitzer said Baytieh’s firing was connected to the prosecution of Paul Gentile Smith, who was sentenced to life without parole in 2010 for torturing and killing a friend.