Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/public-defender/)
The county supervisor shot down a state-funded pilot program that would have brought social workers into the public defender’s office to help with prisoner re-entry. Elsewhere, similar programs have been found to be hugely successful.
The 30-year veteran of the Public Defender’s office has held the position on an interim basis since Frank Ospino stepped down in December.
The Orange County supervisors are in the process of choosing a new public defender. Will they appoint someone who’ll stay aggressive on the jailhouse snitch cases? Or someone who’ll take the heat off District Attorney Tony Rackauckas?
As Public Defender Frank Ospino gets ready to become a judge, his second-in-command, Sharon Petrosino, was chosen this week to temporarily take the reigns.
A temporary head of the county Public Defender’s office is slated to be named Tuesday to repolace Public Defender Frank Ospino, who was appointed to a judgeship.
A review, sparked by revelations of prosecutorial misconduct involving a jailhouse informants system, found the office is significantly behind other local counties in the level of training provided to prosecutors.
In latest chapter of jailhouse informants case, an Orange County public defender alleges that records from the largely secret computer system were withheld from Scott Evans Dekraai defense.
The lead public defender in the Scott Evans Dekraai case grilled Susan Kang Schroeder about her comments to the media and victims’ families.
District attorney and sheriff say county supervisors are
potentially preventing them from fulfilling their constitutional
duties.
Orange County’s Homeless Outreach Court is groundbreaking
program that tries to get at the root of homelessness and help
those living on the streets turn their lives around.