Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/federal-investigation/)
Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Goethals Friday ordered Sheriff Sandra Hutchens to retain all relevant jail informant records after disclosures that the county Board of Supervisors had at one point approved a policy allowing such records to be destroyed.
Nearly four years ago, a Superior Court judge requested that the Orange County district attorney’s office turn over a large cache of records having to do with jailhouse snitches. The fallout from that request continues today.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals said Friday that Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens is close to contempt of court for how her department has responded to repeated requests for records related to the use of jailhouse informants.
The U.S. Justice Department probe will center on how DA prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies illegally gleaned information from jailhouse informants and violated defendants’ rights by not disclosing that information to their attorneys.
Garden Grove, one of just two Orange County cities that still uses red light traffic cameras, could end their contract with Redflex Traffic Systems, the company that provides them.
Council members cite excessive fines as the reason to kill the contract. But the cameras will stay up until June of 2015.