Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/sandra-hutchens/)
Roughly 150 to 200 Orange County jail inmates are on a hunger strike to protest jailhouse conditions, according to two different estimates — one from the OC Sheriff’s Department and another from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Republican Undersheriff Donald Barnes is close to winning the Sheriff’s race outright, ending election night with 50.7 percent of votes, according to results posted by the Registrar of Voters 1 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Undersheriff Don Barnes, Aliso Viejo Mayor Dave Harrington and Los Angeles District Attorney detective Duke Nguyen are all vying for the Sheriff’s seat on June 5.
In the days leading up to Danny Pham’s death, jail staff placed him with a man who police say confessed about two months earlier to murdering a homeless man.
Complicated investigations can several take years, but a deadline is looming: the expiration of the three-year statute of limitations on state perjury charges against three Sheriff’s deputies who are accused of lying under oath about their work with informants during testimonies in 2014 and 2015.
The mid-year overruns could end up eating into millions of dollars in county discretionary money that could pay for other services, according to budget documents.
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.
The lawsuit claims the District Attorney and Sheriff continue to use informants illegally as part of a long-standing snitch program, despite official claims that the illegal use of informants is the work of a few rogue deputies.
Orange County’s top law enforcement jobs could be hotly contested races this year as four candidates, including District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, are running for DA and three contenders want to replace Sandra Hutchens as Sheriff.