Orange County prosecutors and sheriff’s officials have been tight-lipped about the actions they have taken to reform the local justice system in the year since a federal investigation revealed their illegal use of jailhouse informants.
While acknowledging their cooperation with federal authorities, both the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Department have refrained from disclosing any details about their efforts to implement recommendations from the U.S. Department of Justice. This lack of transparency has made it challenging for the public to assess the progress made thus far.
Unfortunately, the DOJ’s civil rights division did not respond to a request for information.
The one-year anniversary of the federal investigation confirms that prosecutors and law enforcement in Orange County had been employing a secret group of jail informants to unlawfully extract confessions from targeted inmates who should not have been questioned without their lawyers present. Additionally, authorities failed to disclose their use of informants to defense attorneys.
“I don’t understand why (reform efforts) wouldn’t be public information,” said Jodi Balma, a political science professor at Fullerton College. “It’s not hard to say, ‘We’re going to follow the law and everyone who doesn’t will be terminated.’”
Orange County Public Defender Martin Schwarz, whose agency has the most at stake in resolving the informant scandal, expressed frustration at being left in the dark about the steps taken towards remediation. Schwarz emphasized the importance of acknowledging that the informant scandal continues to erode public confidence in the integrity of the justice system in Orange County.
Kimberly Edds, spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, shared that prosecutors would like to provide updates on their progress, but the confidential nature of the federal investigation prevents them from doing so.
“In many instances, our efforts go beyond what the DOJ is recommending as we continue to work with the DOJ and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to safeguard the Orange County criminal justice system,” Edds said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to being able to tell the complete story of how we worked collaboratively to eradicate the informant issues created by the prior administration and the practices we implemented to prevent them from occurring in the future.”
The six-year probe by the U.S. Department of Justice concluded last year that the agencies had not done enough to correct or prevent the violations, and lacked the necessary level of cooperation to address the problems effectively.
The DOJ report, an unusual examination by federal civil rights investigators into a prosecutorial agency, called for the formation of an independent panel to review past cases affected by the improper use of informants.
It remains unclear whether this panel was ever established and which, if any, of the 23 recommendations have been put into action. One of the suggestions was for prosecutors and sheriff’s officials to create a contract outlining each agency’s responsibilities when employing jailhouse informants. The contract would also stipulate that prosecutors would not proceed with any case in which the agreement was violated.
Another recommendation was for both entities to conduct a comprehensive review of all cases and convictions involving jailhouse informants. The Public Defender’s Office conducted its separate analysis, uncovering 57 homicide and felony cases where the illegal use of informants had a detrimental impact, resulting in dropped convictions, dismissed charges, and significantly reduced sentences.
Recently, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders accused former prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh, now a Superior Court judge, of misleading federal investigators regarding his use of informants.
Sanders called for a reinvestigation of Baytieh’s interview with federal authorities, as well as a fresh assessment of the affected cases.
“We have presented very detailed allegations about a former prosecutor’s effort to mislead the DOJ during its investigation and have also described a large number of previously unidentified affected cases,” Sanders said. “Obviously, these issues have to be addressed.”
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