Trial in ex-asst. city attorney’s lawsuit

Trial in a wrongful termination lawsuit a former prosecutor with the San Diego City Attorney’s Office brought against the city and former City Attorney Jan Goldsmith continued last week with Goldsmith and some current and former city prosecutors taking the stand.

Attorneys for the plaintiff, Marlea Dell’anno, and for the defendants questioned witnesses to tease out the reason why Goldsmith fired Dell’anno from her job as an assistant city attorney in 2016.

Dell’anno’s suit alleges she was fired because she would not compromise her integrity or ethics. Goldsmith alleges she mishandled case files.

Witnesses who testified last week included Goldsmith, former Senior Chief Deputy City Attorney Mark Skeels, and former Deputy City Attorney Miriam Milstein, who was fired along with Dell’anno.

Skeels testified that after Dell’anno declined to prosecute a case Goldsmith had wanted filed involving a man accused of spitting on a police officer because she said it had insufficient evidence, Goldsmith’s demeanor toward her changed. Skeels said Goldsmith sent an email to all the attorneys in the division Dell’anno oversaw — except Dell’anno — inviting them to share with him any complaints or concerns about the workplace.

“He was much more aggressive with her,” Skeels said. “He would be quick to get angry about certain decisions … and he seemed to be on a mission to solicit any negative feedback he could get.”

Goldsmith said he invited people to share concerns because he had heard deputy attorneys working under Dell’anno were unhappy with her management style but they were reluctant to complain.

He said he was not concerned about Dell’anno’s performance at the time; he only wanted to make attorneys feel heard and ensure the office was running smoothly.

He said Dell’anno was fired because it came to light that one of her subordinate attorneys, Miriam Milstein, had mishandled case files, most of them for domestic violence crimes, and allowed some files that should have been prosecuted to miss the filing deadline. Goldsmith said Dell’anno did not tell him about the files as soon as they were discovered and instead stored them improperly in her home.

Milstein testified she had not ignored the files she had left in her office; she had evaluated the files assigned to her before their filing deadlines and had decided not to prosecute.

She said she did fail to update the status of files in the office’s case management system, but she did not allow cases assigned to her to miss their filing deadline.

The trial is expected to last five weeks.