Cases affected by California county's illegal use of jail informants jumps to 57, new analysis finds

SANTA ANA, Calif. — The California public defender who sounded the alarm about Orange County’s illegal use of jailhouse informants says the number of major criminal cases that have unraveled because of the scandal has jumped from about a dozen to 57.

A new analysis by Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders finds 35 homicide cases and 22 serious felony cases saw convictions overturned, charges dropped and sentences dramatically reduced, the Orange County Register reported Tuesday.

“We already knew that this was the largest and longest running informant scandal in U.S. history, but there had never been a complete accounting of the cases with changed outcomes,” Sanders told the newspaper. The analysis was partly based on data from the district attorney's office.

With Sanders first raising concerns in 2014, state and federal investigators confirmed that Orange County prosecutors and law enforcement officers systematically violated the constitutional rights of criminal defendants with the illegal use of jailhouse informants.

Some informants collected up to $1,500 a case to coax confessions out of targeted inmates. Many of those inmates had a constitutional right not to be questioned by informants because they had already been charged and retained attorneys.

Some of the informants used threats of violence to persuade their targets to talk, which is not allowed by law. Prosecutors failed to disclose to defense attorneys the use of informants and their histories.

All of the impacted cases came during the tenure of former District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. The use of informants under current DA Todd Spitzer is more restricted.

Spitzer said in a statement that much of Sanders’ analysis was previously compiled by the DA's office and shared with the U.S. Department of Justice.

“We have a team of prosecutors tasked with reviewing each one of these cases and ensuring all of our discovery obligations have been met, and to take any further remedial action, if necessary,” he said. “In addition, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office has expanded the role of our Conviction Integrity Unit by adopting a policy to review any wrongful conviction claim.”

Authorities can use jailhouse informants but can’t have them deliberately elicit information from defendants once they are represented by lawyers. In addition, prosecutors are required to turn over evidence to defense attorneys that could be seen as favorable to their clients.