Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/orange-county-sheriffs-department/)
The County of Orange will defend the District Attorney and Sheriff’s Department from a lawsuit over the alleged misuse of jailhouse informants, after the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday for the county’s in-house attorneys to defend the lawsuit.
“I think it’s improper for us to talk about, really, that subject matter now,” said supervisors’ Chairman Andrew Do.
One man died from an early Friday morning fight in the Santa Ana riverbed homeless encampment, but the cause of death is still unclear as the county attorney said it was a stabbing, while the Sheriff’s department could not confirm that.
U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter angrily reprimanded Orange County’s top lawyer Wednesday night for failing to prevent a mix-up that allowed Sheriff’s deputies to move into a homeless encampment on the northeast bank of the Santa Ana Riverbed before county healthcare workers arrived to offer homeless people housing and services.
More than 100 homeless people were moved from the northeast section of the Santa Ana riverbed Tuesday, as part of a mass relocation effort by the County of Orange to clear a longstanding homeless encampment.
U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter Tuesday lifted a temporary restraining order against the County of Orange, allowing it to begin evicting as many as 400 homeless people who still live along the Santa Ana Riverbed.
Federal Judge David. O Carter halted the county’s Santa Ana riverbed homeless evictions late Tuesday night when he ordered the County of Orange and Anaheim, Orange and Costa Mesa to stop enforcing anti-camping and trespass laws along the riverbed.
Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies, along with officers from the probation and parole departments, stepped up eviction efforts along the Santa Ana riverbed homeless encampment Thursday, checking for people with outstanding warrants.
Attorney Brooke Weitzman Monday filed a federal court lawsuit in an effort to halt the county’s eviction of hundreds of homeless people from the Santa Ana riverbed, but the county immediately said it will continue telling people to leave unless a judge orders it to stop.
Homeless people camped along the Santa Ana River slowly are packing up and leaving as a result of county evictions, but most said they are without a place to go and no backup plan.