Decision Near on Whether to Charge Baker

The prosecutor investigating alleged financial improprieties in the last days of C. David Baker’s failed bid for Congress said Wednesday that he has received a final report on the investigation and may decide within the next week whether to prosecute the former Irvine city councilman.

“Just today we have received the final package with all the reports,” Assistant Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi said.

“We’re going to review it to see if there’s anything different from the verbal input that we have had all along. Then we’ll see which side the coin falls on.”

Baker, 35, lost the GOP primary race for the 40th Congressional District to C. Christopher Cox on June 7. Shortly after the election, it was revealed that Baker was forced to resign from the Irvine Health Foundation after he allegedly wrote an unauthorized $48,000 check on the foundation’s account while waiting for a campaign loan to come through.

At the time, Baker’s campaign needed money for a mailer to be sent to voters during the final weekend before the election, and an attempt by Baker to borrow money against his house apparently had run into delays.

According to Baker’s attorney, Paul S. Meyer, Baker placed a stop-payment order on the check before any funds were transferred.

But Baker was confronted by foundation directors about the check on the Friday night before the election and forced to resign as executive director. Later that same weekend, the candidate voluntarily entered a Newport Beach hospital, under the name John Doe, for treatment for exhaustion and depression.

The district attorney’s office was asked to investigate the alleged financial improprieties on Saturday, June 4, by foundation chairman David G. Sills, an Orange County Superior Court judge and close friend of Baker’s.

At the time, Capizzi said he expected the investigation to be completed in about one month. However, the prosecutor said the investigation has taken longer because it took more time than anticipated for investigators to gather bank records. He also said Wednesday that the final report was very detailed and was about 4 inches thick.

“We’re not going to be pressured” to make a decision about whether to prosecute, he said. “We’re not going to do anything until we are ready. The size of our file points to our thoroughness.”

Baker has been in almost total seclusion since he lost the GOP primary race. His attorney said Wednesday that Baker is in Orange County but would divulge little else.

“He’s OK,” Meyer said.

Baker has also been on a paid leave of absence from the law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker since the election. Robert Lane, the executive director of the law firm, said Wednesday that he did not know where Baker was.

Lane said that the law firm has been conducting its own investigation into Baker’s conduct and soon would make a determination about his employment status with the firm, probably immediately after the district attorney’s office announces its decision.

“It will depend on our investigation here and what the district attorney determines,” Lane said. “We expect to take some action in a short period of time.”