Orange County supervisors Tuesday rejected a mediator-approved $2.5 million settlement with a veteran Orange County District Attorney’s Office investigator who sued the county, claiming she was wrongly disciplined for her work on a high-profile rape case.
Jennifer Kearns, who started working for the District Attorney’s Office in 2017 following 25 years on the Long Beach Police Department, sued in 2021, alleging District Attorney Todd Spitzer retaliated against her and placed her on six months of administrative leave for her work on the case against Dr. Grant Robicheaux and his girlfriend Cerissa Riley, whose case generated headlines as it became a political football in Spitzer’s campaign to unseat then-District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.
Kearns alleges in the lawsuit she was a whistleblower in the way the case was handled. The county agreed to work with the plaintiffs to hammer out a settlement with a mediator, but the board unanimously rejected the $2.5 million deal, saying it disputes the allegations Kearns acted as a whistleblower and was retaliated against…