An Orange County Superior Court judge has ruled District Attorney Tony Rackauckas’ office is disrupting the region’s “orderly administration of justice” by blocking the judge whose ruling broke open the county’s jail informants scandal from hearing other murder cases.
Author Archives: REX DALTON
Posted inCountywide, Government, Investigative, Top Stories
Another Murder Conviction Reversed in Wake of Jail Informant Scandal
An Orange County Superior Court judge has overturned a man’s conviction for a 2006 murder in Santa Ana, ruling that the prosecution team violated the man’s constitutional rights in using a jailhouse informant to win a confession.
Posted inCountywide, Government, Investigative, News Briefs, Top Stories
Legal Heavyweights Call for Federal Probe of Orange County DA
A letter signed by a who’s who of the legal establishment, led by Erwin Chemerinsky, is the latest fallout from jail informants scandal.
Posted inGovernment, News Briefs, Top Stories
County Loses Out on Competition for Jail Funds
Officials had hoped to use state money for a $40 million refurbishing of its Intake Release Center.
Posted inCountywide, Government, Investigative, News Briefs, Top Stories
Wozniak Judge Refuses to Hold Hearing on Informants
Judge John D. Conley wrote that public defenders for accused murderer Daniel Patrick Wozniak had failed to show “outrageous government misconduct” involving a jail informant.
Posted inCountywide, Government, Investigative, Top Stories
Fire Authority Officials Not Charged in Hazmat Probe
DA finds no criminal wrongdoing three years after disclosures that Orange County Fire Authority officials charged businesses fees for inspections that were never done.
Posted inCosta Mesa, Countywide, Investigative, Top Stories
Prior Murder Adds Another Layer to Wozniak Case
Samuel E. Herr, the Costa Mesa man Daniel Patrick Wozniak allegedly killed and decapitated in 2010, was himself acquitted of murder charges more than a decade ago.
Posted inCountywide, Government, Health & Wellness, Top Stories
County Seeking State Money for Jail Rebuild
Officials say new intake center in Santa Ana would improve health services for the 60,000 inmates booked annually into county jails.
Posted inCountywide, Government, Investigative, News Briefs, Top Stories
Prosecutor Accused of False Testimony Resigns
Erik S. Petersen, a lead prosecutor in major gang cases, was accused of false testimony during a hearing in the Scott Evans Dekraai case.
Posted inGovernment, Investigative, Top Stories
Wozniak Lawyer Chronicles 30 Years of Alleged Abuses by Local Law Enforcement
In a mammoth motion, the public defender for Daniel Patrick Wozniak, the Costa Mesa man accused of a 2010 double murder, argues that his client shouldn’t face the death penalty because his constitutional rights have been violated by county law enforcement.
