DA who slept with a witness *

Curtis Hazell, the third-ranking official in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office and college roommate of DA Steve Cooley, says he did not begin dating stripper Donna Novarro until after the 1982 murder trial where she testified. Adam Miranda's lawyers, however, argue the relationship should have been disclosed during appeals of his conviction. Today's Daily Journal lays out the tale, which has been whispered about around the DA's office for a long time. Novarro, says the paper, spent much of her adult life in jail on drug and theft charges. She died in 2002.

Her relationship with Hazell lasted several years, and the two had a son together in 1985. Hazell later took sole custody of the child.....

Rumors of some sort of relationship between Hazell and an unknown murder witness have been swirling around rank-and-file employees at the district attorney's office for years. Bozajian researched the matter and wrote it up, including the witness's name, in a civil service complaint he filed in May 2006 with the county against Hazell.

[Deputy District Attorney James] Bozajian wrote the complaint after Hazell had signed off on a negative promotability review of Bozajian in 2005, rating him low for professionalism. Bozajian, a board member with the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, had been a vocal critic of Cooley's administration in the past. He believes Hazell sank his chances for promotion in retaliation.

Bozajian is the mayor of Calabasas. No link for the story.

* Noted: Jeffrey Anderson wrote in detail about Hazell and the case last August in the LA Weekly.