Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas recruits legal experts to review use of jailhouse snitches - OCRegister

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas is forming a committee of legal experts to review his agency’s use of jailhouse informants, following numerous allegations of misconduct.

The panel comes after an extensive two-year probe by Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders that found police and prosecutors were routinely using a secret network of jailhouse snitches to get illegal confessions from inmates. The probe also found that prosecutors allegedly withheld material evidence from defense attorneys.

Four major criminal cases -- including two murder cases -- have unraveled in the fallout from the snitch crisis. Also, one superior court judge removed the district attorney’s office from the penalty phase proceedings against confessed mass killer Scott Dekraai, after concluding prosecutors couldn’t protect the defendant’s rights. Dekraai gunned down his ex-wife and seven others at a Seal Beach salon.

Included in the backlash from the snitch scandal, one sheriff’s deputy is refusing to testify in important gang cases after a judge accused him of lying or withholding material evidence in a misconduct hearing.

The independent panel has begun its review and expects to finish by the end of the year, according to the district attorney’s office. The panel carries a $50,000 price tag.

For his part, Rackauckas conducted an in-house investigation into his prosecutors’ use of jailhouse informants and its effects on the rights of defendants. Under federal law, prosecutors and police cannot use jailhouse informants to question defendants who have been formally charged and have retained legal representation.

Rackauckas’ investigation resulted in changes in personnel , policy and procedures to better track the use of informants and ensure that no violations of defendants’ rights occur in the future, the agency said. - Read More at Orange County District Attorney

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas recruits legal experts to review use of jailhouse snitches

Lawyer: Evidence withheld in O.C. case that sent man to death row  - More at OCregister