ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY NEWS RELEASE
Date: June 13, 2017
*Allegations characterized by the Orange County Grand Jury as “witch-hunt”
OCDA is addressing only the parts of the report pertaining to the Office and defers inquiries regarding the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to Sheriff Sandra Hutchens.
SANTA ANA, Calif. – The Orange County Grand Jury’s (OCGJ) report released today entitled “The Myth of the Orange County Jailhouse Informant Program,” confirms the steadfast position of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office (OCDA) both in court and in the media regarding informant matters. The OCGJ debunked the media “witch-hunt” for agency corruption, in examining People v. Dekraai and People v. Wozniak.
“The OCGJ is confident there is no program of jailhouse informant use for criminal investigation in the Orange County jails.” (p. 19). Furthermore, the OCGJ found that “Allegations of intentional motivation by a corrupt district attorney’s office … to violate citizen’s constitutional rights are unfounded. Disparate facts have been woven together and a combination of conjecture and random events have been juxtaposed to create a tenuous narrative insinuating nefarious intent. That narrative does not stand up to factual validation.” (p. 5)
Key points and findings include:
This controversy was created by a public defender desperate to spare a mass-murderer the death penalty after the OCDA secured the guilty plea and, at a minimum, a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. The media, despite being presented with the truth on multiple occasions by the OCDA, reported whatever the public defender said, which was then parroted by law professors and retired politicians without doing any investigation.
In regards to the OCDA, the OCGJ reviewed the structure and use of jailhouse informants as well as the operations surrounding the use of in-custody informants and found there were discovery violations that had occurred in a “small number of cases.” OCGJ recognized that the OCDA has already implemented organizational changes in remediation. The report also made mention of discovery failures in a few cases where informants were used, and “The IPPEC characterized these types of failures as a result of a ‘win-at-all-costs’ mentality. However, the OCGJ spoke with many credible witnesses who disputed the existence of such a mentality.” (p. 15)
Informant Policies and Practices Evaluation Committee Report (IPPEC)
The IPPEC report was limited in scope and not inclusive of changes already in place. “The OCGJ found that the interviews conducted by the IPPEC were primarily limited to lower level staff and, in fact, only one of the executive staff was interviewed. Many of the recommendations of the IPPEC were already being implemented prior to their investigation and including them as unique recommendations does a disservice to the work the OCDA had already implemented, particularly in the training unit.” (p. 15)
“As the IPPEC team had to rely solely on public documents and voluntary witnesses, they further recommended that “an entity with document subpoena power and the ability to compel witnesses to be questioned under oath” conduct an actual investigation into the truth of informant use.” (p.8)
Methodology
This OCGJ conducted the most thorough examination of the matter involving the informant issue in Orange County’s history. “All of the facts contained in this report had a minimum of three corroborating pieces of evidence and the OCGJ believes this investigation has been thorough and comprehensive in its attempts to speak with all sides of the criminal justice system … It is also important to note that both the OCDA’s office and the OCSD command staff were cooperative and transparent with the OCGJ team throughout the investigation.” (p. 7)
Information OCGJ Gathered and Reviewed (P.6)
The OCGJ was aided by outside legal counsel secured by the California Attorney General, who thoroughly reviewed previous Orange County cases where illegal informant use had been alleged in an attempt to verify the allegations of systematic prosecutorial misconduct. The outside counsel included Ms. Andrea S. Ordin and Mr. Fredric Woocher, both of whom have extensive resumes in both the private and public sectors:
Despite the fact that Dekraai confessed to the largest mass murder in Orange County history, the prosecution was concerned that he would successfully plead insanity and escape justice. In an effort to gather evidence to counter an insanity defense, the prosecution interviewed an inmate who, according to OCSD, reportedly had an in-custody conversation with Dekraai. Ultimately, this interview “formed the basis for the defense allegations of civil rights’ violation in Dekraai.” (p. 8)
The OCGJ report accurately corroborated the procedural history of the Dekraai case: “The prosecution, who has steadfastly held that they were unaware of the informant’s background during this initial interview, immediately decided they would not use his testimony and set up a secondary legal method for capturing Dekraai’s in-custody conversations by recording his conversations with the informant.” The report further mentioned that, “While it’s true that the prosecution did not readily provide the requested informant background information to the defense, they argued the defense was not entitled to it because they had no expectation of using the informant’s testimony at trial.” (p. 9)
When ordered by the court to produce the documents, the OCDA complied fully. However, several documents were in possession of the federal government and this caused a substantial delay in production of discovery materials. “The OCGJ subpoenaed documents from the federal government relevant to this investigation and also experience a substantial delay in receiving them. The OCDA’s complaints of slow actions on the part of the federal government … appear to be credible.” (p. 9)
People v. Daniel Wozniak
In the case of Wozniak, the defense attempted to avoid the death penalty by accusing OCDA of misconduct and filed an “extensive brief again alleging a secret informant program that undermined Wozniak’s rights.” (p. 9)
The defense claimed that the OCDA and OCSD intentionally placed an informant next to Wozniak in order to solicit information from him. However, the OCDA openly notified the defense in the early stages of the case that they did not find the informant, who independently contacted a special handling deputy from OCSD, to be credible and therefore the informant would not be used in any capacity at trial.
One year later, the defense requested background information on the aforementioned informant during the discovery process. This request was denied, and “the prosecution team argued that because the informant would not testify directly in court and no information presented in court came from the informant … they were not bound by Brady or Rules of Evidence to release any informant information to the defense.” (p. 9)
Wozniak was found guilty and sentenced to death in September 2016. The OCGJ “did not find any persuasive or material evidence that the informant was intentionally placed near Wozniak and the OCDA and OCSD version of the events seems credible. The court did not find any violation of Wozniak’s rights and no information was used in his prosecution.” (p. 9)
Recommendations
The OCGJ report made eight recommendations pertaining to the OCDA (p. 26), including:
“The OCGJ made many very valuable suggestions and we look forward to reviewing and considering each for implementation. The OCDA intends to respond in writing as required within 60 days and will make our response available to the public,” concluded Rackauckas.
To review the Grand Jury report, “The Myth of the Orange County Jailhouse Informant Program” in full, click here.
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TONY RACKAUCKAS, District Attorney
Susan Kang Schroeder, Chief of Staff
Office: 714-347-8408
Cell: 714-292-2718
Michelle Van Der Linden,Spokesperson
Office: 714-347-8405
Cell: 714-323-4486
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The Grand Jury say's everything is honest and fair, there are no dirty tricks, being used on anybody in jail. When you leave jail, you get to go back to the same life you always have lived. I say "when you're in Jail you will be set up for anything they want you to be set up for, when you leave jail the next day, the County will do everything they can, to turn your life upside down. By the year 2025 there will be 20 thousand more homeless on the streets of Orange County. Let's all do what we can to reform the corruption in Orange County."