TheAgitator.com
Prosecutorial (and Judicial?) Misconduct in Orange County
Monday, March 17th, 2008The OC Weekly follows up on an absolutely outrageous case in which a carjacking suspect took a plea under a direct threat from the trial judge that he’d put the man in prison for life if he continued to maintain his innocence and was still convicted. This, after DNA evidence excluded the man. The crime lab expert says when she showed the test results to the prosecutor, she said she "didn’t care" about the findings, "I want him not excluded." More disturbingly, she added,
About every week, we ask the crime lab to reconsider findings. Sometimes, they make changes.
Can’t think of a better argument for reforming the forensics system. Who the hell are prosecutors to ask crime lab experts to “reconsider” their findings? Findings are findings. They’re supposed to be grounded in science. If technicians in Orange County are “reconsidering” their findings at the request of prosecutors, they’re either sloppy the first time around, or they’re tweaking their results to help the state win convictions. Neither prospect reflects well on them, or on justice in Orange County. Of course, the prosecutor could just be lying about all of this. Which, given her conduct in this case, doesn’t seem all that far-fetched.
But kudos to the crime lab technicians in this particular case for holding their ground. In fact, the technician here was prepared to testify for the defense. As she absolutely should do–and be permitted to do–when prosecutors proceed with a case in the face of exculpatory forensic evidence.
The suspect was later exonerated when the crime lab was able to match the DNA to a career criminal.
(Hat tip: The Innocence Blog)
The boldness of their claims that prosecutors commonly ask crime labs to “reconsider” their results is just astounding; as if exculpatory evidence is really just an inexcusable annoyance. Not only that, but it wasn’t just one person in the prosecutor’s office. If conspiracies existed (but, we all know they don’t) this would probably qualify.
I especially love the comment at the end about the DA planning to set up his own DNA lab. That’s one way to get results more to his liking.
It’s a shame that the worst thing these sleazy bastards face is a civil trial. They should face a really enthusiastic prosecutor and a “law and order” judge. Muahahahaha!
Where are the Feds with corruption charges? are there any grounds by which the accused can sue the prosecutor AND the judge (howabout fed civil rights violations)?
How is evidence tampering (which is really what the prosecutor is asking the lab to do if he asks them to reconsider their scientific findings) and bold threats by a judge not considered grounds for disbarment?
It amazes me that anyone would have any faith in our judicial system. This goes back to what I’ve said previously, it isn’t a question of if you’re guilty or not but can you afford a good attorney and investigators.
What happens to the lab tech in this case. I’m sure that she’s, at minimum, being blackballed by the the prosecutors office and the PD for not being part of the team.
Firstly, as Radley said, my hat goes off for the crime lab technicians here, for standing up for what’s right when so many of their colleagues in other areas have repeatedly bowed to prosecutors in giving them the results they want or hiding exculpatory evidence from the defense.
As for the prosecutor…. this is worse than the Duke case, IMO. The prosecutor should be going to jail.
The problem is that in smaller cities and towns, the judges and prosecutors have too much leeway because the people themselves don’t know their rights. So when they abuse their powers such as this, they aren’t called for on it because the people themselves fear retribution from them.
[...] Prosecutorial (and Judicial?) Misconduct in Orange County Tags: Crime, csi-evidence, DNA Evidence, Forensics, innocence, News, orange, orange-county, people, police, prosecutor, published-works, radley-balko [...]
| SJE | March 17th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Where are the Feds with corruption charges? are there any grounds by which the accused can sue the prosecutor AND the judge (howabout fed civil rights violations)?
You don’t think the FEDS do the very same thing??? No way are they gonna touch this. Steve
They should be putting the DA on trial, and putting the judge in review. This should be unacceptable to the people of Orange County. They need to get together and force a change.
At a minimum, both the judge and the prosecutor should be brought before the state bar, because they’ve both committed some clear violations of the canon of judicial ethics and the attorney ethics rules, respectively.
DUDE: When will you find these guys? I mean, do you have any promising leads?
POLICEMAN: Leads, yeah. I’ll just check with the boys down at the Crime Lab. They’ve assigned four more detectives to the case, got us working in shifts! Leads…
They need to reform the whole prison system.
It’s all one big cluster f!ck.
Where’s the reform? Maybe if had LESS laws and MORE public humiliation? Anything will work better than what they currently have.
Let’s get our minds off this crap.
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Prosecutor should go to jail. What is the deal with white collar crime in the USA? The crooked mortgage people, this prosecutor, none of them go to jail. Certainly there is a law to convict this prosecutor of his criminal action. Your Pledge of Allegience says, “truth and justice for all.” Back it up. Otherwise, your USA is just an organized crime, a barrel of soulless lazy bums except for their enthusiasm for stealing and ruining people. Predators is what they are.
I’ve always thought that when any member of the court or the police (& crime labs), or the witnesses knowingly make false statements, withhold evidence, etc…, then the person(s) perjuring themselves should receive the sentence they were trying to obtain. Ie, manufacture evidence in a capital case, then expect the death penalty yourself; lying to convict someone for a 10-20 year stint in prison? Tell your friends you’ll see them in 20.
prison guard’s union
California Correctional Peace Officers Association
The California Prison system is the third largest penal system in the country, costing $5.7 billion dollars a year and housing over 161,000 inmates. Since 1980 the number of California prisons has tripled and the number of inmates has jumped significantly. In the past few years controversies involving prison expansion, sky-rocketing costs, and claims of mismanagement and inmate abuse have put the California prison system under heightened public scrutiny.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) is the California prison guards’ union. In recent years the CCPOA has become a major player in California politics. Its political influence has grown to the point that it is widely considered to be one of the most powerful political forces in Sacramento. Its lobbying efforts and campaign contributions have greatly facilitated the passage of legislation favorable to union members.
San Diego Union Tribune
DATE: August 15, 2000
Have you ever wondered why California’s prison population grew from 23,264 in 1980 to 160,846 in July 2000? It is not because rapists and murderers are finally getting their due; for the most part, that was already happening. What has driven the growth of the prison system in California over the past two decades is the 25-fold increase in the number of drug offenders sentenced to prison under harsh new state sentencing laws for virtually every offense imaginable. Because of these laws, California now has the highest rate of drug offender incarcerations in the nation - 134 per 100,000. A rate that exceeds states such as Texas and Louisiana, where compassion and sympathy for law breakers is not highly prized (49 per 100,000 and 106 per 100,000 respectively). Although such a system seems counter to public safety interests, there are powerful political forces at work in California that promote and sustain the present system. Chief among these forces is the prison guard’s union. Because they benefit from prisons teeming with inmates, the guards lavish campaign contributions on political candidates. The influence that the prisons guard’s campaign contributions buys, allows them to pressure elected officials to enact sentencing laws that keep inmates in prison longer, thus expanding the overall pool of prisoners and creating a “need” for more prisons. The guards union blatantly uses its political influence to promote the funding of more prisons.
http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/htCaliforniaPrisonUnion.htm
[...] The suspect was later exonerated when the crime lab was able to match the DNA to a career criminal. [...]
I know for fact orange county public court employees can plant evidence inside a jury instruction for you to fail and be convicted of anything; the planted evidence was known to be false. Printed proof. The scales of justice can be rigged for you to fail and be convicted in orange county type justice. They used serious major false evidence. There are some public court employees who corrupt and undermine the law codes and Constitution. Also, I have seen where the main prosecution witness confimed no crime occurred to the accused innocence and the judge immediately calls for a conference with both public court employee attorneys and court reporter in the back hallway…the evidence that confirmed innocence is no longer in the court record. The person tried to get the record corrected with that deleted removed altered tampered with evidence and the judge would not allow the private attorney in the case. If thats not obstruction of justice then what is ? The person tried having a local civil rights activist call the assigned public attorney to correct record before sentence but would not and did not investigate witnessess who heard testimony evidence of innocence. Crimes happened in that orange county courtroom and public court employees are suppressing it. Expose the truth.
Obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence and offering serious major false evidence to the jury by some court public employees can never be a state interest or public policy. Anyone who has a court proceeding had better audio tape record the proceedings because there are some public court employees who can delete remove alter and tamper with evidence. And you would think being in a courtroom for justice that would assure the highest public safety in orange county…you would be deceived again…in there they can plant evidence for the jury to consider in the jury instruction itself. Serious major false evidence. Expose corruption.