"More than a decade after a jailhouse snitch scandal rocked the Orange County district attorney's office and nearly upended the prosecution of the deadliest mass shooting in county history, federal officials announced they have ceased overseeing the department's informant program, citing recent reforms. The decision, announced Dec. 23, ends a year-long agreement between the Department of Justice and local prosecutors who were tasked with reforming the way they use informants in criminal cases."
"'The Orange County District Attorney's Office has implemented and sustained extensive reforms that demonstrate an enduring commitment to protecting the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights of those in it's jurisdiction,' said Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division."
"According to a 2022 DOJ report, the Orange County District Attorney's Office and Orange County Sheriff's Department from at least 2007 to 2016 was systemically using informants as 'agents of law enforcement to elicit incriminating statements,' then hid evidence of the practice in dozens of trials, including possibly exculpatory evidence obtained by informants."
"The practice came to light during the trial of Scott Dekraii who, in 2011, killed his ex-wife and seven others during a mass shooting in Seal Beach, and sparked questions about how some of the evidence in that trial was obtained."
Federal officials have ended Department of Justice oversight of the Orange County District Attorney's informant program after a year-long monitoring agreement. The Justice Department stated the district attorney's office implemented and sustained extensive reforms to protect Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. A 2022 DOJ report found that from at least 2007 to 2016 the district attorney's office and sheriff's department systemically used informants to elicit incriminating statements and concealed related evidence in dozens of trials, possibly hiding exculpatory material. The issue surfaced during the 2011 Seal Beach mass-shooting trial, and the incoming district attorney in 2018 pledged reforms.
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