Raabe Ordered to Report to Prison Next Week

SANTA ANA —  Former Assistant Orange County Treasurer Matthew R. Raabe was ordered to report to state prison next week for a pre-sentencing diagnostic study that could last as long as 90 days.

“He’s scared,” Raabe’s attorney Gary Pohlson said Friday after Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey issued the order. “He’ll be a prisoner. He certainly won’t get any different treatment from anyone else.”

Raabe, convicted by a jury two weeks ago of five felonies stemming from the Orange County bankruptcy, must report Friday to state prison in Chino, which is in San Bernardino County.

Pohlson said Raabe will be accompanied to the front gate of the prison by his mother and brother but will not be allowed visitors for the duration of the study. Raabe was in court Friday with his family.

Pohlson had asked the judge to delay the start of the study until after the Memorial Day weekend but Dickey refused.

“I think it’s better to get started on this,” the judge said.

The pre-sentencing study would normally be conducted by the county Probation Department, but Dickey suggested the Department of Corrections prepare the report instead after Raabe’s lawyers expressed concern that the Probation Department might not be impartial.

Dickey said there was a danger of a perception of unfairness since the Probation Department’s budget was impacted by the crimes for which Raabe was convicted.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew Anderson and Raabe’s lawyers spent an hour in court Friday tinkering with the language in summaries prepared by each side. They will be sent to state prison officials conducting the study.

When the attorneys continued to debate the content of the other’s report, Dickey ended the debate by explaining that it was not necessary to agree.

“They are not going to be reevaluating the question of guilt,” Dickey said of state prison officials. “I’m sure they will be able to tell that there is a perspective coming from each side.”

The 41-year-old Raabe is scheduled to be sentenced by Dickey on Aug. 22. The pre-sentencing study is designed to help the judge decide Raabe’s punishment. If he does receive a prison sentence, the time spent at Chino for the diagnostic study would be subtracted from that, the judge said.

Pohlson said he is confident that the study will prove favorable to his client and will recommend probation instead of a prison term.

“I think they’re going to find that Matt Raabe is a good person,” the attorney said.

Raabe’s conviction for misappropriating public funds and securities fraud could make him the first Orange County official to face prison for crimes arising from the county’s bankruptcy.

His ex-boss, former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron, pleaded guilty in 1995 to the same charges Raabe faced--charges that carried prison terms of more than 13 years and fines up to $10 million.

The pre-sentencing report for the 71-year-old Citron took into account his age, cooperation with investigators and recommended no more than a year in county jail, which the former treasurer is now serving in a work-release program that allows him to spend his nights at home.