Former sex crimes prosecutor Michael Gressett is too broke to pay for his own lawyers in the rape case against him, but he's too enmeshed in Contra Costa County's criminal justice system for the public defender's office to take the case.

Even the alternate public defender's office — which handles cases when the public defender can't — has a conflict with Gressett, it was revealed Friday.

A grand jury handed up an indictment last month accusing the 23-year prosecutor and former District Attorney candidate of 13 counts of rape, sodomy and other crimes in the alleged lunchtime assault last year of a junior colleague. Gressett, 52, appeared in court Friday for a scheduled arraignment, but without the pair of high-profile attorneys, Michael Cardoza and Daniel Russo, who had represented him until lately.

"I don't have the financial resources to retain a private attorney," he told visiting Judge Carlos Ynostroza. The judge directed Gressett to seek a lawyer through a "conflicts panel" of the county bar.

Acting Public Defender Robin Lipetzky confirmed that Gressett's limited finances qualified him for a public defender, but declined outside the courtroom to discuss the nature of the conflict. But a private investigator for Gressett called it an "inherent conflict," given that Gressett, who was fired this year based on the rape charges, has appealed to reclaim his job. He made $160,000 before his firing.

"Mike has tried

cases against a lot of these people. They would have intimate details about him" from the rape case, said Mark Harrison, the investigator. Among the 33 witnesses who testified before the grand jury were more than a dozen county prosecutors, and many of the lawyers on the conflicts panel may also have a conflict, Harrison said.

"It's fairly uncharted territory," Gressett said outside the courtroom.

Ultimately, the case could get referred back to Russo — at taxpayer expense instead of Gressett's.

The woman, known in court papers only as "Jane Doe," said Gressett sexually assaulted her repeatedly last year during a lunch break at his Martinez condominium, using an ice pick and a handgun. She was a contract prosecutor and no longer works for the county.

The indictment replaced earlier charges that Gressett denied, pleading not guilty. He claims the sex was consensual and that top officials in the District Attorney's Office tainted the investigation, intimidating fellow prosecutors who cast doubt on the former colleague's claim.

The state Attorney General's Office is leading the case under a county protocol designed to remove the appearance of conflict.

"They're driving him into bankruptcy," Cardoza said.

Gressett remains free on $1 million bail and is scheduled to return to court Nov. 30.