As Crawford walked away, the investigator allegedly flicked a large paper clip at the lawyer, Steering said. Crawford tossed the clip back toward the investigator, he said.

“The investigator then grabs [Crawford's] head and slams it into the bench and then punches him like 10 times in the face and head,” Steering said, adding that sheriff’s deputies and officers from the Santa Ana Police Department had to remove the investigator.

Crawford, whose shirt was sprayed with blood and who had a visibly swollen eye, immediately filed a police report, his attorney said. Several witnesses were present, he added.

Steering alleged that a recent legal victory by Crawford may have played a role in starting the fight.

Crawford represents Henry Rodriguez, an accused gang member convicted of murder who won a retrial last month. A judge ruled that authorities should have given Rodriguez’s attorney the jailhouse records showing that a key witness had acted as an informant in numerous other cases.

"The D.A. investigator is assaulting a guy who just got a new trial for someone," Steering said. "It is his only apparent motive."

No arrests were made, and neither man was hospitalized, Stichter said.

The incident is under investigation by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which will turn over its completed probe to the state attorney general’s office for review.

The Orange County district attorney’s office referred all questions on the case to the sheriff’s department, according to a statement.