Deputy DA and retired deputy agree to eight-month restraining order.

Deputy District Attorney David Rabow and retired sheriff’s deputy Bob Empasis agreed privately to the terms of a restraining order that prevents Empasis from approaching or communicating with Rabow, until Jan. 1, 2016.

The order also prevents Empasis from owning or possessing any firearms for that time period.

Empasis is a private investigator in Salinas, retired from a 26-year career as a sheriff’s deputy, followed by eight years as a District Attorney’s investigator.

Rabow had been preparing to go to trial in March as the prosecutor in a murder case against Bernardo Camacho, when Monterey County Superior Court Judge Pamela Butler agreed to delay the trial start date four times due to a personal issue Rabow said he was facing.

That issue: Rabow filed a request March 6 for a civil harassment restraining order against Empasis, who is married to Monterey County Deputy Public Guardian Jennifer Empasis.

Rabow says Bob Empasis sent him threatening emails, blaming him for causing strife in his marriage. Rabow states he received a March 5 email from Empasis that read, “Just wanted to let you know that I’m coming after you.”

Before he was assigned to the homicide unit, Rabow worked on elder abuse cases, prosecuting people for physical and financial abuses. In that role, he worked with Jennifer Empasis representing the Public Guardian.

Bob Empasis and Rabow’s attorney, former prosecutor Gary Thelander, appeared in court April 9 and told Judge Efren Iglesia that they had come to an agreement on the restraining order with no need for a court trial.

That restraining order will be in effect until Jan. 1.

“This is an example of alternative dispute resolution at its finest, when the two sides are able to broker their differences, leaving both sides a little bit frustrated and a little bit satisfied,” Thelander says.

Both sides agreed not to speak in more detail to the media about the terms of their agreement. Indeed, that’s part of why they decided to work it out in a private setting: “We tried to keep things in house,” Thelander adds.

Iglesia returned a letter Thelander had submitted to the court on April 8, telling him it was improperly filed.

“This is not the proper way to communicate with the court,” Iglesia said. “That letter may or may not result in improper ex parte communication to the court.”

Ex parte refers to a communication where one party is not represented. The letter was not immediately available.

During the hearing, Iglesia discussed a request for sealing documents in the court record, meaning they would not be available to the public. 

“If there is a request for the sealing of a document, the rules of the court require that you make an application,” Iglesia said. “That’s not a proper application.”

Thelander responded by saying Empasis had signed the letter too, therefore it didn’t constitute ex parte communication in his view. “Quite frankly, you touched upon my bar credentials, so for the record, it was not ex parte,” Thelander told the judge.

Thelander and Empasis agreed to simply withdraw the letter.

Camacho is accused of killing 6-year-old Azahel Cruz with a bullet that penetrated the wall of the boy’s East Salinas home in 2010. The trial is now set for Nov. 30; Camacho’s attorney, San Francisco-based Jai Gohel, had blocked off the month of March for his client, but then was unavailable due to other trials in other regions.

Rabow has subsequently been re-assigned to the juvenile unit of the District Attorney’s office.