Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/orange-county-district-attorneys-office/)
DA records contradict its public statements for why the DA’s office did not file DUI hit-and-run charges against Santa Ana police Sgt. Gerry Serrano, who now leads the city’s influential officers’ union.
County costs are growing faster than revenues, most prominently with the Sheriff’s Department, officials said.
The so-far unexplained death of Anthony Acevez is drawing interest from two county supervisors, in response to the man’s mother publicly asking for answers.
Anaheim Councilman Jose Moreno and OC Democratic Party Chair Ada Briceño are among 21 people facing misdemeanors for blocking traffic during a January protest supporting higher wages for hotel workers.
District Attorney investigators served search warrants at multiple locations in recent weeks to obtain documents, including text messages involving Reyna from multiple cell phones.
Former District Attorney Tony Rackauckas demoted his Chief of Staff Susan Kang Schroeder, along with at least several other people, on his way out of the office in an attempt to ensure they had jobs, but Schroeder resigned Jan. 14, according to DA Todd Spitzer.
The year-end meeting featured goodbyes to supervisors Todd Spitzer and Shawn Nelson, criticism of the all supervisors over the deaths of more than 200 homeless people this year, and questions from the incoming DA about wiretapping and alleged conflicts of interest related to a contractor hired by the outgoing district attorney and illegal surveillance of elected officials by a police union’s law firm.
At least three more OC sheriff officials knew in 2016 and 2017 of illegally recorded telephone calls between jail inmates and their attorneys, in addition to a sheriff investigator’s knowledge in 2015 of such recordings, according to evidence presented Wednesday in Superior Court.
Prosecutors say Paulette Chaffee, who ran for Fullerton City Council this year and is married to incoming county Supervisor Doug Chaffee, stole campaign signs that labeled her a “carpetbagger.” If convicted, she faces up to a year in county jail.
The closely-watched race pits the DA against his former heir apparent, in a face-off years in the making.