The U.S. Department of Justice and Orange County District Attorney's Office have reached an agreement on prosecutors' use of jailhouse informants following an investigation triggered by the misuse of snitches in the prosecution of the worst mass killer in county history.
The agreement, reached Tuesday, comes two years after the release of a Department of Justice report sharply critical of the use of informants by sheriff's investigators and prosecutors that came out of the case against Scott Dekraai in the Seal Beach hair salon massacre.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
Dekraai avoided the death penalty as a result of the misconduct and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after he pleaded guilty.
The Department of Justice began the investigation into the use of informants Dec. 15, 2016.
The misconduct in the Dekraai case involved placing informants near the defendant to solicit incriminating statements even though he was represented by an attorney, which is illegal.
The agreement comes as a San Diego County Superior Court judge overseeing an evidentiary hearing alleging misconduct in a Sunset Beach murder from 1988 is expected to soon rule whether the case will be thrown out or sanctions will be placed on prosecutors.
The case against Paul Gentile Smith in the 1988 killing of 29-year-old Robert Haugen was reassigned to San Diego County Superior Court Judge Daniel B. Goldstein because the claims of governmental misconduct involve Orange County Superior Court Judge Ebrahim Baytieh when he prosecuted Smith.
The reforms agreed to include more training of investigators and prosecutors regarding the dos and don'ts of using informants as well as creating an easier-to-use database of information for defense attorneys to search.
The agreement also continues a Conviction Integrity Unit that will consider cases involving potentially wrongful convictions or factual innocence and adds a requirement that it include a defense attorney or former judge.
The agreement also continues policies and procedures for the transfer of cases from one prosecutor to another that "require the transferring prosecutor to submit a formal memorandum in qualifying cases detailing case status, disclosures made to the defense, any contemplated use of custodial informants or sources of information at the jails, and any discussions with defense counsel about possible settlement."
The District Attorney's Office has also agreed to "complete a comprehensive historical case review to identify and review prior investigations and prosecutions involving custodial informants or sources of information at the jails to determine whether any remedial or corrective action is necessary," but it is short on details.
The review will include a review of a so-called special handling log, which has been a bonanza of evidence for defense attorneys like Scott Sanders of the Orange County Public Defender's Office, who represented Dekraai, as they challenge convictions stemming from evidence including informants. The analysis will include the years 2015 through 2022.
The reforming of organizing documents and evidence could be a relief to defense attorneys, some of whom have regularly complained in court that they have been given voluminous amounts of evidence that is difficult to search through for relevant information.
The disorganized flow of evidence became a central theme in the Smith evidentiary hearing with Goldstein expressing surprise at how dysfunctional it had gotten.
The District Attorney's Office will also continue to participate in joint audits with the Sheriff's Department to "ensure records on (informants) at the jails are complete and consistent across the agencies," according to the agreement. The audits should be done annually.
There will also be at least one "stakeholder" meeting with the Department of Justice that includes sheriff's officials, public defenders and private defense attorneys "to discuss changes to policies, training, and practices related to this agreement."
District Attorney Todd Spitzer has 45 days to designate someone in the office to make sure the agreement is complied with and the Department of Justice will conduct a "baseline compliance assessment within six months."
Spitzer said in a statement that he "made it unequivocally clear when I ran for Orange County District Attorney in 2018 that I would not tolerate the `win at all costs' mentality of the prior administration. My prosecutors will not violate the Constitution and the rights of defendants in order to get convictions and the rights of victims as well as defendants will be protected."
Spitzer noted that the Department of Justice investigation "was ongoing when I was elected District Attorney and upon taking office in January 2019, I began making immediate reforms, including adopting a new jailhouse informant manual that strictly governs the use of jailhouse informants, including the provision that a jailhouse informant cannot be used without the express consent of the district attorney.
"Under my direction, OCDA has made a broad series of additional proactive reformative measures to improve OCDA operations, including changes to its management structure, policies, training, supervision and staffing."
Spitzer said the agreement will "continue advancing our progress toward lasting, positive change. The signing of this agreement marks a significant milestone in resolving the eight-year DOJ investigation into the prior administration's use of custodial informants through collaboration and cooperation with our federal partners."
Spitzer said he was "incredibly proud of the work that we as a team have done over the last six years to implement the positive, sustained reforms necessary to prevent the sins of the past administration. This work is a clear reflection on our continuing dedication to the just, honest, and ethical administration of the law.
"I am grateful for the partnership of the U.S. Department of Justice and its recognition of our unrelenting proactive approach to addressing these issues and safeguarding against violations of the United States Constitution. The rule of law must be followed without exception. Without it there can be no trust and there can be no justice. Today marks a significant achievement in restoring the public trust."
Sanders said he had little faith the agreement would achieve any reform.
"My greatest concern about the settlement agreement is that it will create the false impression that the somehow justice has been achieved," Sanders said. "It has not. Despite the tremendous importance of the DOJ's 2022 report, which corroborated all of the allegations we presented in People v. Dekraai regarding the systemic violations of defendants' constitutional rights, there are enormous problems that this resolution does not address.
"The first is that the investigation and litigation by our office since 2022 has revealed that the scope and scale of the misconduct is far greater than what was documented by the Justice Department and in Dekraai.
"Second, if justice is the objective, we are from reaching it. At this moment, there exists no government or privately-funded effort to identify and litigate informant-related misconduct. Without this support, far too many defendants are destined to die in prison without ever learning how their rights were violated. No one should be satisfied with that outcome."
Defense attorney Joel Garson, who was instrumental in exposing the jailhouse phone scandal in which inmates calls were improperly recorded, said the agreement appears to "have no teeth to it and is not enforceable... And there's a major party missing from that agreement and it's the sheriff's department. They can play shenanigans, hiding stuff and using it for other purposes and get it to the District Attorney's Office surreptitiously."
Still, Garson noted, Spitzer "has made progress and I like the fact they appear to be transparent, but I can't really see what this agreement does when either party can cancel it."
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok