Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/sandra-hutchens/)
Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals will announce Friday if mass murderer Scott Evans Dekraai faces the death penalty in a case that upended at least six other criminal convictions, damaged the reputations of both the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney’s Office and unveiled the “jailhouse snitch scandal.”
Fire Authority officials say they’ve been performing air rescues for over 20 years and are well-equipped for the job, but that in recent years sheriff’s helicopter crews have been racing to the scene and taking control.
Over $100 million in taxpayer money has been spent since the most recent audit, which was in 2002. The aging system is proprietary, and no bids have been sought from other companies for its $140 million overhaul.
As the 1990s-era equipment becomes obsolete, county supervisors and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens have opted not to ask other companies what they could offer as a replacement for the current system. The upgrade project is expected to cost $140 million.
Sheriff Sandra Hutchens agrees that serious failures by her own jail managers probably enabled last year’s jailbreak.
The sheriff agrees with the grand jury about a lack of supervision the Central Men’s Jail regarding key issues that could have prevented the escape, like properly inspecting plumbing tunnels, and that her executives failed to take action when problems with inmate counts were raised.
She testified she believes there was no widespread misuse of jailhouse informants by her department, but sheriff’s deputies moved confidential informants in the jails to elicit incriminating statements from defendants over the course of years.
An American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) study determined the sheriff’s department fails to meet physical security, medical and mental health care standards inside Orange County jails, an assertion Sheriff Sandra Hutchens called “inaccurate or purposely distorted.”
“This has been an embarrassment for us and um, nobody wants this to happen again,” testified Commander William Baker. “It’s not going to happen again.”
The news comes as her department faces multiple controversies ranging from a federal investigation into the use of jailhouse informants to the recent misidentification of a dead body.