A.V. GETS NEW TOP PROSECUTOR.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Deputy District Attorney John Spillane is leaving the Lancaster office to take charge of the Van Nuys operation and will be succeeded by another veteran prosecutor.

Phil Rabichow, 54, who has been with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for 25 years and now heads the Inglewood office, will start in the Antelope Valley on April 13.

``I'm excited about it. It's an opportunity,'' Rabichow said. ``Lancaster is a growing community, and I think there's a lot of changes that are taking place. It will be exciting to be a part of that.''

Spillane, who was in Lancaster for five years, is moving to the Van Nuys office to take the place of Susan Speer, who was appointed a Municipal Court judge.

``I'm proud of the way our office responded to the increasing caseload,'' Spillane said. ``I believe we performed our jobs as prosecutors very well in spite of having inadequate courtroom facilities. We worked very closely with many of the agencies in the areas of child abuse and domestic violence in starting and developing programs to combat those two serious crimes.''

Spillane helped open a satellite office at the Van Nuys courthouse to handle Antelope Valley criminal cases transferred there, and a courtroom at the state prison in Lancaster to hear cases stemming from offenses committed by inmates.

During Spillane's tenure, the Lancaster office grew from 15 to 21 prosecutors. In Van Nuys, he will oversee 35 deputy district attorneys. The Inglewood office has 13 prosecutors.

``I want to be involved with the community, and as best as possible reduce crime and try to make the Antelope Valley as safe a place as it possibly can be,'' said Rabichow, who worked in Van Nuys before transferring to the Inglewood office more than two years ago.

Rabichow has handled some Antelope Valley criminal cases in the past. Before his transfer to Inglewood, he won convictions of four young men accused in the brutal 1994 robbery-murder of Sung Hee ``Charlie'' Hwang, owner of Charlie's Jewelry Shop. The victim was slain by a gunman who taped a potato to a rifle's sawed-off muzzle as a makeshift silencer.

``The idea (for the potato silencer) came from a movie,'' Rabichow said. ``I went out and rented the movie just to see it. I was planning to show it to the jury, to show them how they got the idea.''

All four defendants, one of whom was a juvenile when the slaying occurred, were convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging from six years to life without the possibility of parole.

Before coming to Lancaster, Spillane was an assistant head deputy in the special investigations division, the unit that investigates wrongdoing by public officials.

``I enjoyed the challenge of working up in this valley,'' Spillane said. ``I met a great number of very committed law enforcement personnel, and it was a pleasure working with the courts.''