Good grief! Spitzer is fired and John “Orlando” Williams seems to have something to do with it!

     This is amazing, a scene from some hard-boiled corruption flick from the 30s. It appears that DA hopeful Todd Spitzer got seriously rope-a-doped by Rackauckas and his fellow Mafiosi of the Schroeder-Fuentes Axis of OC Evil.
     Our own John "Orlando" Williams shows up as a bit player in this yarn; he's as crucial as a paper clip. Check it out:

Todd Spitzer abruptly leaves D.A.'s office (OC Register)

     Todd Spitzer, who aspires to be Orange County's next top prosecutor and was viewed as the likely successor of Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, has abruptly left the law-enforcement agency.
     Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff for Rackauckas, confirmed Saturday that Spitzer is no longer an assistant district attorney.
. . .
     Spitzer confirmed Saturday that he was fired by the district attorney because of the way he handled an information request with the Public Administrator's office.
     Public Administrator John Williams issued a statement Saturday, which did not name Spitzer, but said that an assistant district attorney contacted his office and tried to obtain information to which he was not entitled.
     "He tried to get the information by claiming there was a legitimate law enforcement purpose, using his current title as prosecutor, stating he was a former assemblyman and a county supervisor and saying he knew me personally," Williams said. "This conduct is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated."
     Williams said he forwarded information regarding the prosecutor's conduct to the District Attorney's Office with the hope that the D.A. would handle it "in an appropriate manner."
     Spitzer said he called Williams' office after he received a call from a woman about a domestic-violence and elder-abuse situation. He called Williams' office to make sure the matter was being investigated.
     "It was a legitimate law-enforcement issue," Spitzer said. "I had the right to ask another law-enforcement agency if a potential crime had been committed and whether an investigation was ongoing. I had a duty in my position to do my due diligence and make sure this woman was safe."
     Spitzer said he did not throw his weight around with Williams' staff.
     "I had no reason to throw titles around," he said. "I asked for the information I needed, I got it, I said 'thank you' and that was it. The next thing I know, I get let go and I was told it was because of the way I handled this situation."
     In his opinion, Spitzer said, his firing had nothing to do with his seeking information from Williams' office. He declined to comment further about why he might have been let go or the political implications of his exit.
. . .
     "He is young, smart and has a lot of campaign funds," [former Supe Chris] Norby said. "I'll leave it at that."
. . .
     "When Tony Rackauckas retires, whenever that is, I'm confident that Todd Spitzer will be our next district attorney," [consultant Adam Probolsky] said.....

Norberto Santana of the Voice of OC sheds a bit more light on the possible reason for the firing:

     …[I]t's a far cry from June when Rackauckas all but anointed Spitzer as his successor after winning what he said is his last term as district attorney.
     "I brought Todd Spitzer into the office with the hope and the expectation that he would develop the skills and the experience necessary to be an excellent district attorney," Rackauckas said an email statement to the Orange County Register following the primary win.
     "I look forward to supporting him when that should occur."
     …Many observers wondered aloud whether the DA would actually support a Spitzer candidacy. Many local Republican insiders are terrified of the prospects of Spitzer having subpoena power.
     Rackauckas has a reputation among Republicans and Democrats for not prosecuting politicians. He and others in the DA's office bristle at such commentary, saying they don't have lots of high-profile political prosecutions because the courts have ruled that district attorneys have limited power to investigate other elected officials.
     In 2006, when he was a state assemblyman preparing to run for DA, Spitzer seemed to offer a potential break with that tradition, arguing that he would provide a more active presence on the political scene.
. . .
     He aborted his 2006 bid to unseat Rackauckas after county Republican leaders pressured him to back off….
. . .
     …[T]here were signs months [before Rack's reelection] that the sands had shifted. A key indicator came on April 2, after the filing deadline for candidates in the June primary, and Spitzer's last chance to really challenge Rackauckas, had passed.
     That day Rackauckas appointed his spokeswoman, Kang Schroeder, as his chief of staff without changing her job duties. Kang Schroeder is married to Republican heavyweight campaign activist Mike Schroeder, who was instrumental in the elections of both Rackauckas and former Sheriff Mike Carona.
     Many insiders actually warned Spitzer after the Schroeder appointment that the writing was on the wall – that the peace accord he had brokered was coming to an end.
     Apparently, it officially died on Friday.

From the archives: 1912

     Here is a photo, taken in about 1912, of my mother’s family on her dad’s side: the Schultzes of Bärwalde, Pommern (in what was then the far eastern part of Germany—Prussian territory; see old map).
     Karl and Emilie, who are seated, had twelve children (!), but only six are shown here. My mother’s father is the boy at the right.
     Martha, the woman at the left, and Else, who is wearing the same outfit over at the right, both worked at the time for the Berlin Opera. Perhaps they were home for a visit.

     Aunt Martha (b. 1891) took in my mother, Edith, when Edith’s own mother died in the mid-30s. Edith’s father, shown below, died in a logging accident in 1939. That occurred in Stettin, a big city to the northwest.

     Else hanged herself in 1950. My mother, age sixteen, discovered the body. (She left Germany a year later.)
     I'm intrigued by the little dog.
     My mother knows absolutely nothing about him. She doesn't even know the names of two of the girls in the above family picture.
     Efforts to get this kind of information have thus far failed.
     When the Russians advanced, they destroyed a great deal (they raped all of the women, including young girls).
     I have not yet found any records from the town of Bärwalde, which is now in Poland.

Mom and Aunt Martha at father's grave, c. 1941