On December 15, 2016, the DOJ opened this investigation pursuant to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, 42 U.S.C. 14141, into the patterns and practices of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

According to the DOJ Press Release, the investigation began because of a series of high-profile condemnations of Orange County’s judicial system. The state appellate court had issued a ruling that described constitutional abuses by local prosecutors and deputies as “systemic,” and affirmed an Orange County Superior Court judge’s decision to remove the county’s entire district attorney’s office from a high-profile mass murder case that has become embroiled in a scandal over a jail informant program.

As a result, the investigation focused on allegations that the district attorney’s office and the sheriff’s department systematically used jailhouse informants to elicit incriminating statements from specific inmates who had been charged and were represented by counsel, in violation of the Sixth Amendment.

Additionally, the investigation sought to determine whether the district attorney’s office committed systematic violations of defendants’ due process rights by failing to disclose promises of leniency that would have substantially undermined the credibility of the informants’ trial testimony.

This was investigation was conducted jointly with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California.

The matter appears to be ongoing.

Ginny Lee - 04/12/2017


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