Chen

I. Introduction

Victoria Chen was hired by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office as a level I deputy district attorney in 1990, and by 1993 had been promoted to level in. In July 1995 she went on leave because of complications with a pregnancy, but did not return to work until April 1997.

During her time on leave she earned, as she would later admit in court, in the “neighborhood” of $100,000 a year as a bond trader. She also tried a career in acting. She appeared “in an unpaid infomercial” and two commercials.

Then, after a short, and by all accounts unhappy, stint working in Orange County’s North Court, she went on medical leave for stress in July 1997, and never came back to work. In the fall of that year, while still on stress leave, she decided to apply, along with about 40 or so other deputy district attorneys in the office, for some 10 openings for level IV.

She contacted Vickie Hix, who was a management-level deputy district attorney (level V rank) and asked Hix if she would nominate her for promotion to level IV at the upcoming promotional meeting. Hix was rather reluctant to take up the task, since Chen had never worked for Hix and Hix had no personal…