While an Orange County supervisor was under surveillance, his daughter was interning with county prosecutors

Weeks after it was revealed that Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do paid millions of dollars in contracts to a nonprofit without disclosing any connection to his daughter — a scandal that sparked a lawsuit and a possible federal investigation — his daughter has started working as an intern for the county’s top prosecutor.

Rhiannon Do worked in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for four months earlier this year, a spokesperson for the attorney’s office confirmed to the Times. County officials said Do was not paid.

Meanwhile, the county was also trying to account for $13.5 million in contracts that went to the Viet America Society, a nonprofit that the supervisor’s daughter once served as president. The nonprofit failed to provide adequate documentation on how it used county money to feed the needy and elderly, according to a complaint filed earlier this month.

Three county supervisors said they were unaware of Rhiannon Do’s brief stint in the district attorney’s office while county officials considered legal action against the nonprofit and asked local and federal officials to intervene. Other board members did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the complaint, the Viet America Society and its leaders, including Rhiannon Do, “brazenly looted” taxpayer money intended to feed the needy and instead used it to purchase multiple homes. Days after the complaint was filed, on August 15, agents from the FBI, IRS and the district attorney’s office executed search warrants at homes across the county, including a Tustin home purchased by Rhiannon Do in July 2023 and the home of Supervisor Andrew Do.

LAist was first to report that Andrew Do had failed to disclose his daughter’s ties to the Viet America Society when voting.

Law enforcement officials declined to provide details of their investigation.

But before the joint investigation between local and federal authorities was launched, Rhiannon Do worked as a student volunteer from Jan. 15 to April 17, said Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

The fact that she interned at the prosecutor’s office and that her investigators participated in last week’s raids alongside federal agents could raise problematic questions, said Stan Goldman, a Loyola Law School professor who testified as an expert on conflicts of interest.

“I think it’s not wise,” Goldman said. “It’s not a prudent and wise decision. It’s something that could jeopardize the prosecutor’s prosecution of the case.”

Do has since left VAS but continued to be involved with the association during the first weeks of his internship. Sterling Scott Winchell, an attorney representing the organization, said his work with the association ended in February.

While at the district attorney’s office, the UC Irvine law student, now in her third year, was assigned to a misdemeanor district court and placed under the supervision of a misdemeanor assistant district attorney, Edds said in an emailed statement.

“She was assigned to perform ministerial duties two days a week, for a total of 10 hours, at the Central Justice Center,” she said.

Do was one of 38 student volunteers, including 11 others from UC Irvine.

Edds did not respond to follow-up questions about whether the district attorney’s office was aware that Andrew Do was under scrutiny for his role in awarding the VAS contracts or that the county was working to recoup some of those funds when Do’s daughter was selected for the program.

But she said executive officials confirmed that Do had no interaction with the office’s major fraud unit or the special prosecutions unit, which oversees public corruption cases, while she was a volunteer in the prosecutor’s office.

The county’s lawsuit alleges that VAS executives, including Rhiannon Do, diverted money from county contracts into their personal bank accounts. County attorneys accuse the supervisor’s 23-year-old daughter of using the money to buy a home in Tustin in July 2023.

According to real estate website Redfin, the home was purchased for $1,035,000.

VAS’s lawyers denied any wrongdoing and said the contracts had been honored.

Rhiannon Do’s attorney, David Wiechert, declined to comment on her time with the district attorney’s office, but said in an email that she was “a hardworking, honest and law-abiding young woman.”

Andrew Do’s office declined to comment.

Prior to the joint investigation involving federal and local officials, Orange County Supervisors Katrina Foley and Vicente Sarmiento had asked law enforcement to step in and investigate the allegations against VAS. In an Aug. 12 statement, the two supervisors asked Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer to investigate the unaccounted-for funds.

Following federal investigators’ raids last week, Foley and Sarmiento asked Andrew Do to resign. His term will end in November.

In a statement to the Times, Sarmiento said he was unaware of Rhiannon’s role in the district attorney’s office until he was contacted by a reporter. However, he said he had no concerns about the district attorney’s involvement and was pleased that his calls for law enforcement intervention were heard.

“The scope of the investigation shows that the District Attorney’s Office has been involved for several months, and I am pleased that my request for action has been heard,” he said. “I have no concerns with the prosecutor and expect him to act in accordance with the duties of his office. I also expect the District Attorney to continue to pursue issues related to misconduct or corruption by elected officials at all levels of the county.”

A county spokesman referred questions to the district attorney’s office.

Supervisor Doug Chaffee also said he was unaware of Rhiannon Do’s role as an intern.

“The District Attorney’s Office, like other departments, does not notify council offices of the employment of student interns or volunteers,” Chaffee said in a statement.

A Foley spokesman said his office had no knowledge of interns in departments outside his own.

The case highlights the tight, interconnected circles law enforcement officials had to navigate in an investigation that appears to have ensnared one of Orange County’s most influential figures, who has been in politics for at least 16 years.

Before being elected to the Board of Supervisors, Andrew Do served on the Garden Grove City Council. Before that, he worked as an Orange County prosecutor. He is a committeeman for the 72nd Assembly District of the Orange County Republican Party. His wife, Cheri Pham, assists the presiding judge of the Orange County Superior Court.

In and of themselves, many of these questions would not present an ethical dilemma or conflict of interest, said Goldman, the law professor. He points out that internships in county attorneys’ offices are frequently sought-after positions by law students.

But the accumulation of these factors, he said, raises fears that at least the appearance of conflict could be created.

“These are all small things in themselves, but if you add three of them together, you say, ethically, maybe you should take a step back,” he said.

Since the raids on the homes of Supervisor Do, his daughter and VAS CEO Peter Pham, calls have grown for Do to resign from his seat on the supervisory board.

Do was absent from a supervisory board meeting on Tuesday.

During the meeting, Foley asked the California attorney general to investigate whether Do lives in the First District of the Board of Supervisors, which he represents. The home that was raided by the FBI, in Tustin, is outside his district.

The board is also due to vote on September 10 on whether to remove Do from his position.

“Andrew, please resign,” Foley said at Tuesday’s meeting. “If you truly care about this county, as you have repeatedly stated in the past, then you will resign so we can begin to heal the deep wounds you have caused all of us.”