The Brief

Imagine you’re sitting on a jury, having been asked to judge a person’s guilt or innocence for a serious crime. You are supposed to base your decision solely on witness testimony and the evidence presented by prosecutors and the defense team.

But what if prosecutors have withheld evidence that could have helped prove the defendant’s innocence? What if they failed to tell the jury that some of the witnesses are actually government informants, perhaps getting money or favors in exchange for delivering the kind of testimony that secures a conviction?

That’s illegal. And that’s exactly what happened in dozens of criminal cases in Orange County over at least a decade — until an assistant public defender brought to light what’s come to be known as the “snitch scandal.”

The discovery unraveled what should have been a slam-dunk conviction in the county’s deadliest mass shooting in modern history, the 2011 Seal Beach salon shooting. The misconduct was so bad that a judge threw the entire O.C. District Attorney’s Office off the case and spared the perpetrator — who had already confessed — from the death penalty.

Sentencing was also delayed — for three, painful years for victims — while the court investigated police and prosecutor misconduct. But that’s not all.

Here’s a short list of some of the other consequences that have followed:

• The district attorney at the time was ousted from office in the next election. 
• The Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation — which resulted, just this month, in a settlement. 
• Dozens of serious criminal convictions were lessened or overturned.  

Now, we’re awaiting a judge’s decision in one of the cases unraveled by the scandal — a decision that could raise fresh doubts about whether the O.C. justice system’s lauded reforms are sufficient to rectify past injustices.

What’s this pending case all about?

Specifically, San Diego Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein must decide whether O.C. law enforcement can be trusted to fairly retry a man, Paul Gentile Smith, accused of stabbing his childhood friend Robert Haugen to death in 1988 and then setting the body on fire in the victim’s Sunset Beach apartment. Or, whether prosecutors have cheated so badly that Smith should be allowed to go free.

Smith was convicted of murder in 2010. But after it came to light that jailhouse informants were illegally used in his case, a judge threw out the conviction in 2021 and ordered a new trial after sheriff's deputies refused to testify about their use of informants in the case.

Prosecutors have admitted they failed to turn over evidence that they are legally required to disclose to the defense. But they say there’s DNA evidence tying Smith to the murder, and that they won’t use any tainted evidence involving informants to try to convict Smith in the retrial.

“The victim's family and society deserve justice and the Defendant can and will receive a fair retrial,” Seton Hunt, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, wrote in a December court filing.

Orange County assistant public defender Scott Sanders — the one who originally uncovered the snitch scandal and is defending the accused — says prosecutors can’t be trusted to turn over all of the evidence that could help Smith prove his innocence. In court documents and at hearings over the past year, he identified dozens of pieces of evidence in the case that hadn’t previously been disclosed by prosecutors.

“They will never tell the truth,” Sanders said at a December hearing. He’s asking the judge to dismiss murder charges against Smith.

The judge has already indicated he believes prosecutors acted badly.

“At the very least, there was misconduct,” Goldstein said at a December hearing in the case. “There’s no way we’re all leaving here at the end of the day thinking there was not misconduct.”

What’s so bad about using informants?

It's not illegal for authorities to use confidential informants or “snitches” — in or out of custody — to collect information. But once someone has been charged with a crime, the Sixth Amendment guarantees them the right to have an attorney present during questioning by a law enforcement representative, including an informant secretly working for law enforcement.

This is sometimes called the "Massiah" rule after a Supreme Court case.

Prosecutors must also turn over evidence from, and about, jailhouse informants used in a defendant's criminal case because it could help the defendant question the informant's credibility. Failing to do so violates the 14th Amendment and related court decisions, which require prosecutors to share with defendants any evidence they have that could help them prove their innocence.

This is sometimes known as the "Brady" rule after another Supreme Court case.

The origin of the OC snitch scandal

More than a decade ago, Sanders, the assistant public defender, discovered that local law enforcement had been strategically putting informants in jail cells with certain defendants from whom they wanted to get information and/or confessions. For years, they hid the entire program. When questioned about the use of jailhouse informants during the Seal Beach salon mass shooting case, several sheriff’s deputies lied under oath or refused to testify.

A federal civil rights investigation followed and concluded in 2022 that O.C. law enforcement “systematically violated” criminal defendants’ constitutional rights. Since then, the scandal has unraveled dozens of criminal convictions, including 35 homicide cases.

District Attorney Todd Spitzer, who was elected in 2018 on a promise of reform, beefed up training for prosecutors and implemented strict rules for jailhouse informants, including requiring his consent before they’re used. The DA also started something called a Conviction Integrity Unit — people who think they were wrongly convicted can request that the DA reexamine their case.

Spitzer also later fired one of his top prosecutors, Ebrahim Baytieh, after an independent investigation found that Baytieh had withheld evidence about informants in the Sunset Beach murder case — the same case awaiting a retrial decision from Judge Goldstein.

Baytieh went on to win election to the O.C. Superior Court a few months later, with endorsements from dozens of current and former judges and law enforcement leaders.

About the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit

The Conviction Integrity Unit investigates claims of factual innocence and wrongful convictions in Orange County. The bulk of the case reviews are initiated by the 12-person unit (half of them part-time).

The entity’s work resulted in the DA dropping charges in 67 cases where evidence was improperly handled by the O.C. Sheriff’s Department, according to Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the DA’s Office. That issue, in which some deputies were waiting weeks to book evidence or not booking it at all, came to light in 2019.

Individuals can also request to have their case reviewed. If the Conviction Integrity Unit decides the application has merit, they’ll open an investigation. If the DA determines, based on that investigation, that they’ve lost confidence that a person was fairly and lawfully convicted, they’ll notify all parties and assist the defendant in reopening their case.

The Conviction Integrity Unit has received 296 applications for conviction review since it was established in 2020, according to Edds. She declined to say how many applications resulted in an investigation, saying the office doesn’t discuss investigations.

None of the applications for case review have resulted in the DA proposing a case be reopened, Edds told LAist.

In a statement to LAist, Spitzer wrote: “We are extremely proud that over the last few years and hundreds of case reviews by our Conviction Integrity Unit we have yet to discover a single instance when a convicted defendant was either wrongly convicted or was determined to have been factually innocent.”

So is the snitch scandal over?

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced it had reached settlement agreements with the O.C. District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Department to remedy the injustices uncovered in the federal government’s investigation. The announcements came at the last minute — a few days later, Trump took office and froze the department’s civil rights division, which was in charge of the investigation.

In a news release announcing the settlement, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke commended the DA’s reform efforts: “The District Attorney’s proactive efforts, together with today’s agreement, will not only protect the constitutional rights of individual defendants; they will also help restore the public’s confidence in the fundamental fairness of the criminal justice system in Orange County.”

Spitzer wrote in a statement: “I am incredibly proud of the work that we as a team have done over the last six years to implement the positive, sustained reforms necessary to prevent the sins of the past administration.”

The settlement stipulates that the DA will continue implementing reforms, including:

• Reviewing cases, through the Conviction Integrity Unit, where defendants’ constitutional rights may have been violated by the use of informants. 
• Carrying out a “comprehensive historical case review” of prior investigations to determine whether informants were misused and whether action is needed in those cases to remedy any constitutional violations. The review is supposed to encompass all jailhouse informant activity at O.C. jails based on DA and Sheriff’s records. 

Edds, the DA spokesperson, wrote in an email that the office is committed to a “comprehensive, coordinated review of past investigations and prosecutions that involved custodial informants.”

It’s unclear how many cases could be subject to the kind of historical review called for in the federal settlement, but Sanders, the assistant public defender, called the work “massive in scope.”

In an email to LAist following the settlement announcements, Orange County Public Defender Martin Schwarz emphasized the need for an historical case review.

“Only once those cases have been re-evaluated, and those individuals afforded the due process guaranteed to them by our constitution, can we ever truly move past this,” he wrote.

Why the defense still has questions

Sanders is skeptical whether the measures laid out in the settlement are enough to right the wrongs of the past.

For one thing, when the Department of Justice first released its findings on the snitch scandal three years ago, it recommended the county establish an independent body to review past prosecutions involving jailhouse informants. To date, that has not happened.

It's been years since efforts first began to unearth evidence that should have been disclosed to defendants — the snitch scandal broke in 2014; the Department of Justice began its investigation in 2016; and Spitzer took office, with new reforms, in 2019.

And yet, over the past year’s worth of hearings in the Sunset Beach murder case, Sanders, in court filings, said he uncovered 23 pieces of evidence related to the use of an informant that had never been turned over to the defense.

Sanders and Schwarz said it would take major funding to review all the cases in which official misconduct might have led to a wrongful conviction. Sanders said that funding would likely have to come from an outside source — the public defender’s budget, set by the county, is currently a little over half the DA’s budget.

“There’s a lot of work to be done and time is running,” Sanders said.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced several significant rule changes for the 99th Oscars, including AI protections for actors and writers as well as expanded eligibility for international films.

In a statement to NPR, the Academy on Saturday said the changes are in response to listening to the global filmmaking community and addressing barriers to entry in its eligibility process.

The Academy added that its rules and eligibility standards have always evolved alongside technologies such as sound, color, and CGI, and that AI is no different. Awards rules and guidelines are reviewed and refined each year.

A blow for Tilly Norwood 

Among the most noteworthy changes, the Academy now explicitly states that only roles, "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" are eligible for Acting awards. In other words, AI creations like the much-hyped Tilly Norwood cannot hope to win a Best Actress Oscar anytime soon.

Particle6, the production company behind Norwood, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on Saturday about its creations' ban from consideration. In March, Norwood commented, "Can't wait to go to the Oscars!" in an Instagram post announcing its newly released music video.

The Academy also requires screenplays to be "human-authored" and said it reserved the right to investigate the use of generative AI in any submission.

Meanwhile, qualifying flesh-and-blood human actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances get enough votes to land in the top five. So, someone like Anne Hathaway, who has five major movies scheduled for release in 2026, could now theoretically sweep the nominations – though that outcome seems extremely unlikely.

"If an actor has an extremely prolific year, might we even see someone swallow up three of the five nominations?," wrote Deadline's awards columnist and chief film critic Pete Hammond about the changes. "Probably won't happen, but it's now possible."

Under previous rules, an actor could only receive one nomination per category. If they had two high-ranking performances in Best Actor, for example, only the one with the most votes would move forward.

International films prioritizes filmmakers over countries

While international films can still be the official selection of their countries, now they can qualify by winning the top prize at a major international festival such as the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, or the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Historically, countries "owned" the nomination, and only one film per country was allowed. The new rules allow multiple films from the same country to compete if they are critically acclaimed, and it shifts the honor from a geopolitical entity to the filmmakers themselves.

Largely positive response

The changes have prompted a largely positive reaction from the film community on social media, such as on the popular The Shade Room entertainment and celebrity-focused Instagram feed, where commenters widely praised the "human-only" move to protect creative jobs.

The Academy's Awards Committee oversees the rules in tandem with branch executive committees, the International Feature Film Executive Committee and the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee.

The rules are scheduled to go into effect next year, covering films released in 2026.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Los Angeles changes fast, and oftentimes that means some of the architectural relics of our shared past get swept up and paved over in all the "progress." (RIP Garden of Allah.)

But there are still places where you can find ruins that tell a tale, like a long-forgotten speakeasy reputedly for old Hollywood near La Crescenta.

The ruins are still there 

On a recent afternoon, author and local historian Mike Lawler led me just beyond the boundary of Crescenta Valley Park. Joggers like me might have seen an old, towering stone arch shrouded by bushes there — and wondered what lies beyond.

Turns out there was once a place called the Verdugo Lodge back there and Lawler has spent years excavating its history.

A car speeds away from the lodge onto New York Avenue. The stone archway that still stands can be seen in the background.

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“It was a very high-end speakeasy for a time,” Lawler, who also helps run the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, said. “An amazing thing. And all the ruins are still here, just like this arch.”

Lawler said we don’t know exactly when the lodge was built, but we do have some of the picture starting in the late 1920s. The place was set up kind of like a timeshare where people bought 10 x 10 foot ‘tent lots’ that gave them access to on-site amenities. There was a golf course, stables, trout stream, a swimming pool — and a lodge with gambling and alcohol.

“The Crescenta Valley in the teens and '20s was a hotbed of moonshine, prostitution, all that stuff," Lawler said. "It was a quiet little community. But in all these canyons up here, stuff was going on. Illegal stuff!”

We don’t have a full guest list, but Lawler said it’s likely at least a few Hollywood types had gone up to the lodge to circumvent Prohibition era laws.

In some ways, it was kind of like the original glamping. Lawler said patrons probably weren’t doing much sleeping, though.

“They might have been unconscious!” he said with a chuckle.

Lawler led me to a road that swooped around a meadow. We passed by a massive swimming pool nestled into the hillside.

Once known as the “Crystal Pool,” it’s now empty and fenced off, with pitch black locker rooms below.

The exterior of the locker rooms for the old Crystal Pool.

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We continued our journey up the hill and eventually arrived at a cascading stone stairway.

And at the top, the big show: overgrown with orange monkey flowers and goliath agaves lies the foundation of the old Verdugo Lodge, with lofty stone fireplaces the only guardians keeping the surrounding oak trees at bay.

Lawler takes out a floorplan that one of the former owners drew up for him.

“This is what it was laid out like on the inside. So a dancehall, and band stand on that side... And then upstairs was the gambling,” Lawler said.

Lawler had in hand a copy of a Los Angeles Times article from 1933 he found. The headline reads: “Revelers Flee in Lodge Raid.”

“The police that raided it were here at 3 o'clock in the morning. And there were still 500 people here. And they said it was the classiest joint they had ever raided... Anyway, people were diving out of windows and everything,” Lawler explained.

In a ruin like this, covered with moss and overgrowth, the imagination can run wild, too.

The archway that still stands outside of what's now known as Mountain Oaks.

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Lawler pointed out a questionable door jam below the old dancefloor that’s been cemented over.

“That is a door. So what is behind there? So there’s a room in there that got walled in for some reason,” he said.

What we do know is that, sometime after the raid, the tawdry Verdugo Lodge and the surrounding land were purchased and then renamed Mountain Oaks by the Kadletzes — an entrepreneurial family who had run everything from a Turkish bath to a mini golf course. Over the next few decades, the family would rent the place out to local groups for recreational retreats.

The future of Mountain Oaks 

After they sold it in the ‘60s, Lawler said Mountain Oaks faced a “nightmare” of development threats. Over the years, some of the subdivided "tent lots" had been combined and sold off, Lawler said. A dozen private homes now stand on these pieces of land, next to the ruins of the Verdugo Lodge.

A map showing the Mountain Oaks public property acquired by The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).

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Last year, with help from the City of Glendale, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant among other funding sources, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) put up $6.1 million to acquire 33-acres of the land — not including the private lots where the homes stand — so the public can continue to roam the meadow and ruins.

Paul Edelman, MRCA's director of natural resources and planning, said his group will continue to manage the land, doing things like brush clearance, trash pickup and sign maintenance. And he said there are no current plans to remove the ruins or make any major changes to the property.

“If somebody comes up with a grand idea where they can find some funding for us to do something to enhance it, we’re always open to it,” Edelman said.

The purchase was good news for local preservationist Joanna Linkchorst.

“I grew up directly up the hill. But I always saw the sign that said ‘private property’ and didn’t really think about it until several years ago when I finally asked Mike. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, we got a resort speakeasy down the street,’” Linkchorst said standing among the oaks and overgrowth.

Linkchorst, who founded the group Friends of Rockhaven to preserve another nearby historic site, said it’s been amazing to see all of the decaying structures that were still hiding out at Mountain Oaks.

“There’s almost like these little ghosts in your head as you imagine what it was like when there was a beautiful wood floor and there was a second floor that people came jumping out of,” Linkchorst said.

Now, let’s check in to the Overlook Hotel.

That’s the fictional place Stanley Kubrick brought to life in his 1980 film The Shining, loosely based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.

A local architect who hails from South Pasadena meticulously crafted a 3D model of the iconic space so Shining fans everywhere never have to check out.

‘I just couldn’t stop’ 

At his day job, architect Anthony Chieh mainly works on residential and boutique commercial spaces. But over the course of five months, he spent his nights meticulously recreating a virtual replica of the Overlook Hotel from the film that first scared him when he was 12.

Of course he started with the deeply haunted Room 237. That’s where Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, has a terrifying encounter with a ghostly woman.

Chieh's 3D rendering of Room 237

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Anthony Chieh

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“But once I started, I just couldn’t stop,” Chieh told LAist.

“I ended up modeling the Colorado Lounge, and then after that I was thinking maybe I should make the lobby and then arriving to the Gold Room, and then Grady’s bathroom.”

“It’s like a rabbit hole,” he said.

Users who download Chieh’s free 3D model can fly through all of those spaces, immersed in atmospheric sounds and music from the film.

“It’s interesting to dive into these kind of fictional environments and try to make sense of it,” Chieh said. “And the hope is people will get a different perspective once they’re in there.”

Kubrick’s take on the Overlook was famously inspired by real hotels like the Timberline Lodge in Oregon and the Ahwahnee in Yosemite. But the interiors you see in the film were created on sound stages in England.

“Real architecture, physical buildings, are built for people to live. And for movies, these are more meant to express the emotional aspect of things. It’s a psychological construct,” Chieh said.

In a recently published video essay on YouTube, Chieh dives deep into those psychological constructs and how, as he puts it, “Kubrick designed the Overlook Hotel not as a backdrop, but as the film's true villain.”

How spaces scare 

Chieh said during the monthslong process he was reminded of the power of architecture and design in the real world too – whether it’s an uncomfortably repetitive carpet design or a claustrophobic hallway.

“A physical construct can affect your emotion,” Chieh said.

“You can use it in a way to make people feel comfortable and you can also use it in a way to create fear.”

Chieh's 3D rendering of the Torrance's apartment in 'The Shining'

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Anthony Chieh

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What’s next for this architect moonlighting as a 3D modeler?

Chieh says he’s thinking about giving the spaceship from “2001: A Space Odyssey" the virtual treatment next. Or maybe turning to a local non-fictional space, like the Stahl House.

That is, of course, if he can ever escape the Overlook.