'​Lack of oversight' led to informant scandal in Orange County DA's office, committee finds

After six months of evaluating the Orange County D.A.'s office, a committee released a report Monday that says "lack of oversight" and a "failure in leadership" led to the jailhouse informant controversy. 

The report was prepared by an internal committee headed by District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. It found that the District Attorney himself was unaware of many problems that led to the informant issues. 

Despite taking responsibility for the failure of leadership and oversight, Rackauckas said he plans to remain in office.

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

Rackauckas said there have been a series of managerial and staff changes in these two departments. Both managers in charge of the gang and target prosecution units have retired, he said.
 
Rackauckas said he doesn’t believe his prosecutors willfully engaged in misconduct but rather made mistakes and were sloppy.
 
“If a person makes a judgment mistake involving a case, that’s not something that one should be punished for,” he said. “If there is intentional misconduct, that’s certainly different.”
 
Rackauckas said the deputy district attorney most involved in the informant scandal cases was transferred out of the gang unit before leaving the Orange C0unty District Attorney’s office.

“All of the office knows that we are not conspirators,” Rackauckas said.

In March of 2015, Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals removed the district attorney's office from the Scott Dekraai murder trial after finding prosecutors failed to turn over jail records about informants to Dekraai's public defender.

Dekraai, 45, pleaded guilty last year to killing eight people at the Salon Meritage hair boutique in 2011. 

The report released Monday gave these ten suggestions to the Orange County D.A.'s office.

• Revise OCDA policies and procedures regarding the use of jailhouse informants.
• Establish a Confidential Informant Review Committee (CIRC) with defined protocols and include an “outside” or independent member on the CIRC.
• Overhaul the OCDA training program, with extensive additional training regarding discovery obligations and the use of jailhouse informants.
• Coordinate with the OCSD and all law enforcement agencies in Orange County regarding jailhouse informant protocols and procedures, including OCDA’s Jailhouse Informant Policy, and engage in detailed training on the Orange County Informant Index (OCII). •
• Restructure and combine into one unit the OCDA Gang Unit and Target Unit.
• Establish an OCDA Conviction Integrity Unit.
• Establish an OCDA Chief Ethics Officer position.
• Reinstate the Chief Assistant District Attorney position.
• Eliminate “Chief of Staff” position and create a position of “Assistant District Attorney for Media Relations.”
• Appoint an independent “monitor” for a three-year period to oversee OCDA compliance with the IPPEC’s recommendation.

The DA's office said in a statement last year that it has already made some changes to avoid similar abuses in the future, including updating its informant policy manual and creating this internal committee.

As result of the report findings and at the suggestion of the committee, Rackauckas sent a letter Monday to the U.S. Attorney General “requesting and welcoming … any review” in regards to the his office's policies on informants and offering the U.S. Department of Justice unfettered access to documents and personnel.
 
“If a federal investigation will put it to rest, or a grand jury investigation, then let’s get it done and get this thing out of the way,” he said.

Read the full report here:

Orange County DA informant report