DA's Office Reconsidering Use of Jailhouse Informants

By PAUL ANDERSON
City News Service

Nearly four months after a judge removed the Orange County District Attorney’s Office from prosecuting the worst mass killer in county history over alleged misuse of jailhouse informants, the office announced today the creation of an independent committee to evaluate the use of such informants.

Members of the Informant Policies and Practices Evaluation Committee are retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Smith, retired Los Angeles County Assistant District Attorney Patrick Dixon, former Orange County Bar Association President Robert Gerard and Blithe Leece, who was described by District Attorney Tony Rackauckas as a specialist in ethics law and professional responsibility.

Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson will serve as an adviser for the committee.

According to Rackauckas, his office has conducted a “thorough in-house investigation” into the legal questions and concerns raised about the use of jailhouse informants since convicted mass killer Scott Evans Dekraai sought to have his office removed as prosecutor in his death penalty trial. Attorneys for Dekraai, who pleaded guilty in May of last year, also filed a lengthy motion early last year requesting the death penalty removed as an option for prosecutors.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethal removed Rackauckas’ office from prosecuting the 45-year-old Dekraai in the death penalty phase of his trial. But Goethal did not remove the death penalty as an option.

In Dekraai’s case, defense attorneys accused investigators of lying about how government informant Fernando Perez was placed in a cell next to Dekraai, where Perez got friendly with him and heard him “brag” about the Oct. 12, 2011, massacre of Dekraai’s ex-wife and seven others in and around Salon Meritage in Seal Beach.

The dispute over informants led prosecutors to cut deals with other defendants, including one who walked free, because of allegations that prosecutors withheld evidence from defense attorneys.

Leonel Vega, 35, pleaded guilty in February to voluntary manslaughter for the 2004 killing of rival gang member Giovani Onofre and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Vega, who was featured prominently in the Dekraai motion, was originally convicted in December 2010 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He could be freed from prison in four years given the time he has spent in custody already.

Isaac John Palacios, whose case was also cited in the Dekraai motion, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was released from custody after receiving credit for time served in jail. He had originally been facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Attempted murder and solicitation of murder charges were dropped against Joseph Martin Govey, another defendant featured frequently in the Dekraai motion, in September of last year because of similar issues raised about informants in his case.

The use of informants has also spilled over into the prosecution of accused double-killer Daniel Patrick Wozniak, who is also facing the death penalty and is represented by Dekraai’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders. Prosecutors hotly deny anything was done unethically or illegally in the Wozniak case, since Perez was not yet a government informant when he befriended Wozniak and solicited incriminating statements.

It is not illegal for prosecutors or investigators to use jailhouse informants unless the target is already represented by an attorney.

Sanders told City News Service he is skeptical the committee will lead to improvements in the system.

“I have enormous respect for those who would give their time to try to improve the situation moving forward,” Sanders said. “But, of course, there remains the enormous problem of addressing decades of potential informant- related misconduct and evidence concealment, which is beyond the scope of this committee’s review.

“The other issue is that the law regarding informants and evidence disclosure has been well settled and understood for decades,” he said. “Those laws have been ignored because of a culture that overvalues winning, and changes in procedures -- although welcomed -- will not remedy this fundamental problem. Unfortunately, what I continue to experience on the ground is the OCDA continuing to minimize what has been learned, while portraying prosecutors and members of law enforcement as the victims.”

Attorney Kate Corrigan, a founder and past president of the Orange County Criminal Defense Bar Association, was more optimistic.

“This is the first significant and meaningful action that the OCDA’s office has taken to address the jailhouse informant problem,” Corrigan said. “The committee is comprised of talented and respected members of the legal community. It is my hope that the committee will be given unlimited and full access to files, records and information. More importantly, it is going to be critical that the committee be given unrestricted access to (Orange County Sheriff’s Department) and OCDA personnel who were involved in the illegal use of jailhouse informants, and that those individuals provide candid, complete and truthful information to the committee. If the foregoing occurs, then we should finally learn the truth about who knew what and who did what to violate the constitutional rights of many incarcerated citizens.”

--City News Service