DA ordered to turn over any racial bias records in UC Irvine fraternity case

An Orange County Superior Court judge has ordered District Attorney Todd Spitzer to immediately turn over any records showing racial bias to lawyers representing a Black former UC Irvine student blamed in the alcohol poisoning death of a fraternity pledge.

Deputy Public Defender Amber Poston sought the order based on statements made by Spitzer in the unrelated double-homicide case against Black defendant Jamon Buggs. A judge found that Spitzer violated the state Racial Justice Act by saying during a meeting that he knew Black men who sometimes dated White woman to enhance their status.

Buggs was found guilty in June and sentenced to life in prison.

Poston used Spitzer’s statements to bolster her defense of Zavier Larenz Brown, a former student charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly supplying the bottle of whiskey consumed by fraternity pledge Noah Domingo, 18.

In her motion, Poston wrote that Spitzer’s statements illuminated his “racism and racial bias.” While granting the request last week, Judge Karen Robinson sealed the records at the D.A.’s request, as well as any motions referring to the documents, according to the court file.

Spitzer said race is not a factor in the Brown case.

“As the elected District Attorney of Orange County, I have an obligation under the law to file criminal charges against an individual who is responsible for the alcohol poisoning death of an 18-year-old college student,” Spitzer said in an email. “This case has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the facts surrounding the death of Noah Domingo.”

Spitzer’s office noted that Robinson’s discovery order was not a confirmation that racial bias had occurred.

The Brown case is the first of what some predict will be many court challenges stemming from Spitzer’s comments in the Buggs case. Spitzer said state lawmakers, by passing the Racial Justice Act in 2020, “created a whole new playbook for the public defender to make it more difficult to hold people who commit crimes accountable and to keep our communities safe.”

Most of the five defendants in Domingo’s alcohol poisoning, all members of the suspended Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at UC Irvine, were given a plea deal by the court granting them community service in lieu of jail time.

But at Spitzer’s insistence, a judge ordered Brown to face misdemeanor charges of furnishing alcohol to a minor causing death or great bodily harm and allowing a party where underage drinking is permitted.

Spitzer appeared at a hearing in November 2021 to argue that Brown’s charges — giving Domingo a 750-milliliter bottle of Jack Daniel’s and encouraging him to drink it all — were too serious to qualify for diversion.

“Young men and women drinking at universities, to the point of excessive intoxication, has resulted in incredible tragedies,” Spitzer said in the Newport Beach courtroom of Judge John Adams.

Adams concurred: “This was egregious behavior, and it was entirely preventable.”

A misdemeanor conviction for Brown carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.