Court Blisters DA's Office for Disqualifying Judge who Booted It from Mass Murder Trial

By PAUL ANDERSON

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas today announced his office will appeal a Superior Court judge’s ruling denying prosecutors’ motions to disqualify a judge who booted Rackauckas’ office from the death penalty case against the worst mass killer in the county’s history.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard King on Thursday issued rulings in multiple cases denying motions from prosecutors that would disqualify Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals from presiding over the trials.

King acknowledged a contention from many defense attorneys in the county that Goethals was subjected to “blanket disqualifications” as retaliation for kicking the entire District Attorney’s Office from prosecuting the penalty phase for Scott Dekraai, a ruling that is under appeal.

Multiple prosecutors who have spoken with City News Service under condition of anonymity denied earlier this year they were punishing Goethals and said that in most cases the disqualification motions were filed because they disagreed with his philosophy on allowing evidence from victims, particularly in sex-crime cases, that did not lead to charges against a defendant.

Goethals, they say, has been reluctant to allow that sort of evidence into trial.

One senior prosecutor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it’s difficult for prosecutors to feel Goethals will be fair to them because he ruled that the District Attorney’s Office could not be trusted to prosecute Dekraai fairly.

Goethals cited the District Attorney’s Office’s close relationship with sheriff’s deputies, who were the subject of allegations of governmental misconduct in the way they handled jailhouse informants.

Rackauckas has told his prosecutors to avoid trying to disqualify Goethals from their cases, sources say.

King cited statistics that show a sudden spike in disqualification motions against Goethals since his rulings in the Dekraai case.

Right before Goethals allowed evidentiary hearings into allegations from Dekraai’s attorney of outrageous governmental misconduct, the judge booted Deputy District Attorney Erik Petersen from a jailhouse beating case because the jurist found the prosecutor had improperly withheld evidence from defense attorneys.

In July 2013, Goethals removed Deputy District Attorney Sandra Nassar from a case after she admitted she withheld potentially exculpatory evidence for strategic reasons.

“For over three years, from Dec. 7, 2010, through Feb. 24, 2014, Judge Goethals was assigned 35 murder cases for trial and was disqualified once by the People,” King wrote in his ruling. “From Feb. 25, 2014, through September 2015, a period of 18 months, Judge Goethals was assigned 49 murder cases for trial and was disqualified 46 times by the People.”

King went on to write, “This disparity is not coincidental. Rather, the People’s ‘blanket papering’ of Judge Goethals ensued from his rulings in three cases: rulings in which he found that prosecutors and police officers had committed misconduct.”

Prosecutors are allowed a motion to automatically disqualify a judge and do not have to provide an explanation. It’s fairly routine in the courts and usually does not ruffle any feathers.

However, King said the use of the automatic disqualification has caused log jams in the court system.

In October, many cases were being sent to retired judges who were tasked with attempting to help attorneys reach settlements. Part of the reason was to ease a backlog in Dept. C5, the courtroom where trials are assigned to a judge for trial.

“The People’s blanket disqualification of Judge Goethals adversely impacted the functioning of the long cause panel and the resolution of murder cases,” King wrote in his ruling.

“Therefore, the court eliminated the long cause panel and began assigning murder cases to short cause judges. But while that reduced a backlog of murder cases, it created backlogs elsewhere, requiring further modifications.

“Therefore, the court has concluded that it is necessary for the proper administration of justice to restore the court’s case-assignment procedures to those which existed for many years before (Feb. 25, 2014).”

Prosecutors have argued that during the time there were only a smattering of disqualification requests filed against Goethals, he was an assignment judge in Dept. C5, where it would be rare to file that sort of motion.

In a statement issued by the District Attorney’s Office after business hours today, officials said that they “respectfully disagree with Judge King’s opinion” and intend to appeal the ruling.

“The (District Attorney’s Office) is not ‘blanket papering’ Judge Goethals. Even following his ruling recusing (the District Attorney’s Office) on People v. Scott Dekraai, prosecutors have consistently litigated their cases in front of Judge Goethals, including a serious robbery case in his courtroom today,” the statement from Rackauckas’ office read.

“In 2015, prosecutors took dozens of cases to Judge Goethals; 14 went to jury trial, including one attempted murder, and two murder cases: People v. Lucero Carrera and People v. Tuumamao Nelson Tuiolosega.

“The OCDA continues to authorize its attorneys to exercise the same right enjoyed by every attorney in the state of California. Namely, to individually determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether he or she believes he or she can get a fair trial before any assigned judge.”

King argued in his ruling that it’s a “separation of powers” issue in which Rackauckas, representing the executive branch, has “substantially disrupted the operations of the court” with the flood of disqualification requests.

City News Service