O.C. D.A. office under fire for using jailhouse informants creates advisory body - latimes

Oange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said Monday that he was creating a committee of legal experts to review his office's use of information from jailhouse “snitches.”

Rackauckas made the move amid mounting criticism about the use of informants first exposed in the prosecution of Scott Dekraai, who killed eight people, including his ex-wife, in a 2011 Seal Beach mass shooting.

In the case, prosecutors presented evidence that Dekraai made incriminating statements to the informant. A judge later disqualified the district attorney’s office from the case, saying it failed to disclose evidence about the prolific serial informant. Secret jailhouse computer logs revealed he had been part of a scheme run with jailers to place informants near suspects.

Prosecutors and jailers said, in this case, it was a coincidence, but Dekraai's attorney insisted it was part of an operation to elicit incriminating remarks from defendants who were represented by lawyers, a violation of their rights under federal law.

At least four serious criminal cases — including two murder cases — have already suffered serious setbacks because of questions over informant involvement.

Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, Dekraai’s attorney, said that during the last five years there were at least 41 cases in which informants were questionably used and his office is looking further back.

Sanders, who unearthed the controversial use of informants as Dekraai’s attorney, said “decades of potential informant-related misconduct and evidence concealment” are beyond the scope of the committee’s review. Laws on informants and evidence disclosure were ignored, he said, “because of a culture that overvalues winning, and changes in procedures — although welcomed — will not remedy this fundamental problem.” - Read More at the O.C. D.A. office under fire

O.C. D.A. office under fire for using jailhouse informants creates advisory body

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