
Hidden Injustice: County Counsel Works to Keep OC's Snitch Scandal Under Wraps - us0r
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2015/07/orange_county_sheriff_department_district_attorney_snitch_court_scandal.php
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AdeptusAquinas
It seems a lot of this sort of stuff would stop happening if they just
incarcerated members of the US justice system for the crimes they got people
wrongly convicted for.

E.g., you put a man in jail for ten years over a robbery he didn't commit, by
fudging evidence, and you as prosecutor are then forced to serve the ten year
sentence.

Ludicrous of course, very eye-for-an-eye, but it might certainly put a dent in
the rampant corruption that seems to be happening stateside.

~~~
girvo
Heck I don't even care if they get the same sentence, I just demand they be
held accountable. Which doesn't seem to happen anywhere.

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
Ken Anderson spent five days in jail for his role (Brady violations) in the
Michael Morton case. Morton served almost 25 years in prison for a murder he
did not commit. [http://www.statesman.com/news/news/ken-anderson-to-
serve-10-...](http://www.statesman.com/news/news/ken-anderson-to-
serve-10-days-in-jail/nbmsH/)

Funny story, his successor has just been sentenced to 10 days in jail for
contempt of court for violating a gag order in connection to a capitol murder
case. She hasn't served it yet, and probably won't.

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worldadventurer
Another related article:
[http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/29/1388819/-Judge-
disq...](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/29/1388819/-Judge-disqualifies-
all-250-prosecutors-in-Orange-County-CA-because-of-widespread-corruption)

Al Jazeera is investigating and they've gotten their hands on tape recordings:
[http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-
tonight/art...](http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-
tonight/articles/2015/5/28/orange-county-snitch-scandal-audiotapes.html)

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x0054
I think reading this story some people might think, well, who cares, this guy
is guilty. And in this particular case, the actual guy on trial does happen to
be very guilty in deed. He did confess, and I think they had a pretty strong
case against him without the jail house snitch.

BUT, I would like to point out that this is still a very important case
because a) this is illegal, and b) because jail house snitches are extremely
unreliable. That's putting it mildly. In reality, ALL jail house snitches are
liars and they will literally tell the police anything that the police want's
to here. Have you ever wondered why a good lawyer will NEVER give a copy of
the clients file to a client, if that client is in jail. If you do that, there
is a very high likelihood that someone in jail will sneak a peak in that file,
find out what kind of evidence the cops have, and will immediately claim that
they have independent knowledge of that evidence, because the client confessed
to it.

Cops promoting jailhouse snitching can lead to higher conviction rates, but
not better justice. In fact really good investigators, you know, the once who
actually want to find out the truth, not just convict people, will slip some
false leading questions during their interview to see if they can catch their
"star witness" on a lie, or so I have been told by an investigator who used to
be detective for many decades before retiring and becoming a PI.

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thinkcomp
Incidentally, the California courts have erected enormous barriers to
transparency, perhaps inadvertently, by using a collection of differing
docketing systems from county to county, and then charging outrageous fees for
records.

A scathing letter I sent to the California Judicial Technology Council was
successful in lowering Los Angeles County's search fees from $4.75 per 20
results to $1.00 per search back in March. They rarely get any comments at all
from the public (because no one knows they exist).

See [http://www.courts.ca.gov/jctc.htm](http://www.courts.ca.gov/jctc.htm).
And send in comments!

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ccvannorman
Judge: "I'm a big believer that these are public courts," he said. "The public
should know what we are doing here. It protects the integrity of the system."

Right on. Secrecy may have a place at the international level (NSA etc), but
at local jurisdictions, if you're keeping secrets from your population, THAT
is a problem.

~~~
a3n
But, convictions would go down! /s

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us0r
Another related article:

[http://www.latimes.com/local/orangecounty/la-me-jailhouse-
sn...](http://www.latimes.com/local/orangecounty/la-me-jailhouse-
snitch-20150313-story.html)

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clamprecht
I was going to upvote this, but the site displayed a popunder-type ad when I
clicked to read page 2. Here's the "print article" link:

[http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2015/07/orange_county_...](http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2015/07/orange_county_sheriff_department_district_attorney_snitch_court_scandal.php?print=true)

