The husband of a victim of Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in Orange County history, filed a claim against District Attorney Todd Spitzer alleging the county’s top prosecutor defamed him.
Paul Wilson, who filed the claim on Thursday, said Spitzer’s office slandered him after he and other relatives of victims of the Seal Beach massacre held a protest outside Spitzer’s office in August.
“Nothing they said about me is true,” Wilson told City News Service. “To attack me the way they did, I don’t know the word to use for it… It’s complete insanity on their part.”
The protest stemmed from Spitzer’s praise of two prosecutors who worked on the case, who were later blamed by Spitzer for malpractice and negligence in the handling of Dekraai’s prosecution, which led to the so-called Jailhouse Snitch Scandal that upended Dekraai’s case and allowed him to avoid the death penalty.
Dekraai, who pleaded guilty to the 2011 killing spree targeting his ex-wife and friends at the Salon Meritage in Seal Beach, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole when an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled there was misconduct in the case and the death penalty was removed as an option for prosecutors.
After the protest, Spitzer’s office issued a news release accusing Wilson of working with Dekraai’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, to help him run against Spitzer for district attorney.
Wilson took particular exception to “aligning me with… some wacky group that wants to defund the police and open up all the jailhouse doors and let the criminals out on the streets.”
Wilson’s wife, Christy Wilson, 47, was one of Dekraai’s victims.
“When you make yourself a self-appointed public figure and continually involve yourself in political discussions, you make yourself fair game for anyone to have an opinion about you,” said Kimberly Edds, public information officer for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
“There is no doubt that Paul Wilson has appointed himself a public figure and he stands shoulder to shoulder with an assistant public defender and his progressive ideas. Paul Wilson put himself in the political arena and anyone is free to express their opinions about what he says or does.”