DA Tony Rackauckas Stumped By His Own Gun Mystery

By R. Scott Moxley Wed., Apr. 6 2011 at 7:50 AM

Categories: Crime-iny, Moxley, Politics

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Photo by Christopher Victorio

DA: Can't play Russian Roulette anymore.

Every day crime mysteries are uncovered in the Orange County District Attorney's office. And every day some of those mysteries are officially solved by prosecutors in courtrooms. But there's one mystery that has stumped DA Tony Rackauckas.

It's not a mystery where Rackauckas is playing the role of prosecutor. Nope. The DA is the potential victim--either by the act of a sneaky crook or his own faulty memory.

In late 2009, Rackauckas lost a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum handgun when he moved from Irvine to Anaheim and he still can't find it.

Was it stolen? Or misplaced? Was it accidentally left at a Bible study session or a strip club?

"He doesn't know what happened," DA chief of staff Susan Kang Schroeder told me. "He doesn't know if it was stolen or lost. I know it's embarrassing, but that's the truth."

The missing gun actually belonged to Don Blankenship, a former Santa Ana police officer who'd become Rackauckas' chief investigator only to leave the job in 2009 after suffering medical problems. According to Schroeder, the four-term DA filed a missing gun report with the Anaheim Police Department and then bought a new replacement weapon for Blankenship.

Rackauckas is the occasional recipient of death threats from the likes of criminal street gang bosses or the mentally deranged, says Schroeder, who declined to elaborate on what security precautions the DA takes nowadays.

--R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

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