Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals recently warned that he might soon find Sheriff Sandra Hutchens in contempt of court for the prolonged lag in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s compliance with a discovery order he made “200 weeks, or 1,400 days,” ago in the trial of Scott Dekraai.
Goethals’ statement came just a day after the U.S. Justice Department announced its commencement of an investigation into allegations that the Sheriff’s Department and Orange County District Attorney’s office violated the constitutional rights of defendants by using jailhouse informants to elicit incriminating statements from suspects and failed to disclose evidence to defendants about doing so.
In response, the Sheriff’s Department referred us to a statement released Dec. 5, announcing its release of thousands of pages of documents – including entire pages that were redacted without court approval. “This is the type of discovery response that the court has come to expect from the sheriff,” Goethals said in response to what he called a “document dump.”
The department claims it has made a deliberate effort “to locate any records or documents related to jail classification and special handling,” and has searched through hundreds of thousands of files in an attempt to comply with court orders and discovery requests. It, further, contended that it is conducting its own investigation related to the jailhouse scandal.
However, with multiple ongoing investigations – by the feds, the state attorney general and the county’s grand jury – and the determinations of both an appeals court and superior court judge that the rights of suspects have been violated, Goethals’ most recent statements reinforce a troubling view of the department.
According to reporting by the Register, Deputy County Counsel Kevin Dunn, who represents the Sheriff’s Department, has said that some deputies are invoking their Fifth Amendment rights to avoid self-incrimination, hindering efforts to comply with court orders in timely fashion.
None of this speaks well to the fundamental integrity of an agency charged with the responsibility of enforcing the law. We can only call on the department to do what it can to fully comply with its obligations.