Orange County, CA – Its no secret that many felons, defense attorney’s, and inmates believe that the office of the prosecutor fights unfairly and plays dirty. The reality is, there isn’t much oversight to keep prosecutors from doing so. Making matters worse, there is nearly no mechanism used to punish prosecutors who do.
[simple_tooltip content=’This is the act of charging many serious and scary charges to coerce a defendant into pleading guilty, rather than risk the hassle of trial’]Charge bargaining[/simple_tooltip] (plea extortion), [simple_tooltip content=’This is the risk of many years or decades more in prison if a defendant chooses to go to trial rather than plea.’]trial penalties[/simple_tooltip], and [simple_tooltip content=’Hiding exonerating evidence to help get the conviction’]Brady violations[/simple_tooltip] are all common forms of prosecutorial misconduct. They are very easy to suspect, but often very hard to prove.
Hard to prove, that is, until a story like this comes out. A judge in Orange County has disqualified any prosecutors from the county District Attorney’s office from participating in a specific criminal case because of rampant corruption and civil rights violations against defendants. Shaun King over at the Daily Kos exhaustively goes over the allegations and the events leading up to the disqualification of prosecutors. His piece gets started this way:
Between San Diego and Los Angeles is Orange County, California. With more than 3 million residents, it’s larger than 21 states. If Orange County were a separate country, its economy would be the 45th largest in the world. Now known for Disneyland, the county may soon be known for having one of the most corrupt justice systems in the world. The width and depth and duration of the corruption truly boggles the mind. A case that should’ve been open and shut has blown the lid off some deep secrets.
On October 12, 2011, Orange County experienced the deadliest mass killing in its modern history. Scott Dekraai killed 8 people, including his ex-wife, in a Seal Beach beauty salon. He was arrested wearing full body armor just a few blocks away. Without a doubt, Dekraai was the perpetrator. A dozen surviving witnesses saw him. He admitted to the shooting early on. Yet, nearly four years later, the case against him has all but fallen apart.
It turns out that prosecutors and police officers committed an egregious violation of Dekraai’s rights—so much so that Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals shocked everyone and removed the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, and all 250 prosecutors, from having anything more to do with the case.
The entire piece is worth a full read, and will make your blood boil.