The U.S. Department of Justice is carrying out a new probe into the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Seen are DA Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens. (File photos by Orange County Register/SCNG)

Tony Saavedra / Staff Writer
Jan. 6, 2017 – Updated 9:18 p.m.

Community forums. Face-to-face meetings with leaders of the local deputies union and with local defense attorneys. Twitter.

Is this any way to conduct a civil-rights investigation?

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Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens speaks in August. (Sam Gangwer/Staff Photographer)

By Kelly Puente and Tony Saavedra / Staff Writers
Published:  Dec. 16, 2016
Updated:     Dec. 17, 2016 – 8:57 a.m.

A judge said Friday that he might find Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens in contempt of court because of her department’s reaction to an order to produce documents in the trial of admitted killer Scott Dekraai.

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The U.S. Department of Justice is launching a civil rights investigation into the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Department over allegations that prosecutors and police routinely withhold evidence and use jailhouse informants to illegally obtain confessions. From left, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens. (Photos by Orange County Register/SCNG)

By Kelly Puente / Staff Writer
Published: Dec. 15, 2016
Updated:   Dec. 16, 2016 – 7:12 a.m.

The U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights investigation of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Department on Thursday over allegations that prosecutors and deputies withhold evidence and use jailhouse informants to illegally obtain confessions.

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Former San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Mary Izadi has been hired by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department as an adviser on constitutional issues. (Leonard Ortiz / Staff Photographer)

Published: Aug. 16, 2016
Updated:   Aug. 17, 2016 – 7:50 a.m.

Amid an ongoing jailhouse informants scandal that suggests Orange County sheriff’s deputies may have violated defendants’ civil liberties, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has hired a full-time adviser to review her department’s practices to ensure they are constitutionally sound.

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Tony Saavedra / Staff Writer
Published: June 30, 2016
Updated: July 1, 2016 – 7:38 a.m.

The American Civil Liberties Union is threatening to sue the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the latest salvo in the group’s onging investigation into the county’s use of jailhouse informants.

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Associated Press
Posted:     06/11/2016 – 11:47:28 PM PDT
Updated: 06/11/2016 – 11:48:01 PM PDT

SANTA ANA — Authorities in Orange County have acknowledged an extensive log detailing the handling of jailhouse informants was kept by sheriff’s deputies but never released despite court hearings last year over the use of snitches in the high-profile case of a mass killer.

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Tony Saavedra / Staff Writer
June 9, 2016 – Updated 10:49 p.m.

Secret notes kept by Orange County sheriff’s deputies on jailhouse informants appear to contradict testimony given by deputies during legal hearings for confessed Seal Beach mass murderer Scott Dekraai, prosecutors said late Thursday.

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Three inmates escaped from the Orange County Central Men’s Jail on January 22, 2016. The facility was built in 1968. Erika Aguilar/KPCC

Erika Aguilar
May 05, 2016 – 09:36 PM

Orange County sheriff’s officials have assigned an investigative sergeant to monitor how and if jailhouse informants will be used with the Sheriff’s consultation after deputies failed to disclose records to the court on the department’s inmate informant program.

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By Tony Saavedra and Scott Schwebke / Staff writers
March 4, 2016 – Updated 6:08 p.m.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California jumped into the Orange County fight over jailhouse informants on Friday, filing a public records request seeking access to internal law enforcement files dating back to 1985.

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Surrounded by staff, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, center, listens as The Orange County Board of Supervisors meets with Robert Gerard and other authors of the Orange County District Attorney Informant Policies & Practices Evaluation Committee Report at The Orange County Hall of Administration in Santa Ana on Tuesday. Joshua Sudock ?Staff Photographer)

By Meghann M. Cuniff / Staff Writer
Updated Jan. 13, 2016 8:34 a.m.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday told the district attorney and sheriff to estimate how much it will cost to implement an outside legal committee’s reform recommendations in the wake of the county’s jailhouse informant controversy.

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Orange County Dist. Atty Tony Rackauckas created a special committee in July amid mounting criticism about the use of jailhouse informants by his office. (Los Angeles Times)

Matt Hamilton and James Queally
December 4, 2015

A “failure of leadership” at the Orange County district attorney’s office led to repeated problems with the handling of jailhouse informants and helped erode confidence in criminal cases that rely on their testimony, according to a report made public Monday.

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Dec. 31, 2015 – Updated 8:59 a.m.

About this story: This report was written by Edward Humes, the author of 13 nonfiction books and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his Orange County Register coverage of the military. The story is based on extensive reporting by the Register’s staff, including Tony Saavedra, David Ferrell, Kelly Puente, Tom Berg and Ian Wheeler, previously published stories and legal documents obtained by the newspaper since the arrest of Scott Dekraai after the worst mass shooting in Orange County history. Illustrations were drawn by Jeff Goertzen.

Read more at the Register’s ‘Inside the Snitch Tank’ site

Prologue

On his last day of freedom, Scott Dekraai spoke on the phone with his ex-wife. Let’s meet for coffee, he suggested.

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By Kelly Puente and Tony Saavedra / Staff Writers
Nov. 19, 2015
Updated Nov. 20, 2015 – 12:36 p.m.

After four sheriff’s deputies refused to testify in court on grounds of self-incrimination, an Orange County judge on Wednesday granted a new trial for a gang member convicted of murder.

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By Rex Dalton
November 18, 2015 at 2:00 PM

A coalition of national legal authorities is calling for a federal investigation of the Orange County District Attorney and Sheriff’s Department for alleged systemic violations of defendants’ rights involving jail informants.

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O.C. Sheriff Sandra Hutchens

BY TONY SAAVEDRA / STAFF WRITER
Published: Dec. 5, 2014 Updated: 8:44 p.m.

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens this week joined the county’s top prosecutor in defending the use of jailhouse informants placed in cells wired to capture recorded confessions.

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Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times / May 4, 2009)

By Jill Cowan
March 3, 2014, 7:46 p.m.

Orange County has been deluged with more than 1,000 concealed weapons applications since rolling back restrictions in the wake of an appellate court ruling, and officials are preparing to hire more than a dozen retired deputies to handle the crush.

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