Share This Facebook Twitter News The OC Jailhouse Snitch Scandal Is Back In Court — And Here's Why It Matters

Skip to comments.

Posted on 12/17/2024 12:09:39 AM PST by xxqqzz

One of the biggest law enforcement scandals in Orange County history could resurface in a hearing set for Monday.

The Orange County Public Defender's office is accusing Ebrahim Baytieh, a former high-profile prosecutor who's now an Orange County Superior Court judge, of being at the center of an "enormous web of deception" designed to cover up misconduct that helped prosecutors win cases while cheating defendants out of their right to a fair trial.

A spokesperson for the Orange County Superior Court said sitting judges are prohibited from commenting on active cases.

The allegations came in a 424-page court motion filed last year by Scott Sanders, the assistant public defender who first uncovered what's come to be known as the O.C. jailhouse informant or "snitch" scandal.

In the hearing Monday, a judge will consider Sanders' request to drop charges in a murder case because of the misconduct. In that case, Paul Gentile Smith is accused of stabbing Robert Haugen to death and setting his body on fire in Haugen's Sunset Beach apartment in 1988.

Sanders says the new evidence of alleged wrongdoing could also taint dozens of other criminal cases, potentially leading them to be overturned or reconsidered.

O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer wrote in a statement that his office had already addressed misconduct by Baytieh in the Smith case and that dropping charges against Smith would be "unconscionable."

Here's a closer look at the complicated and twisted years-long series of events that have led up to this point.

A decade ago, Sanders exposed the widespread and abusive use of jailhouse informants by Orange County prosecutors and law enforcement.

(Excerpt) Read more at laist.com ...

Click here: to donate by Credit Card

Or here: to donate by PayPal

Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794

Thank you very much and God bless you.

Prosecutors offer an inmate a reduced sentence if he will inform on another inmate. Often the snitch will say the other inmate confessed to a crime, sometimes murder. This sort of evidence is often, maybe usually fabricated. Some people have been convicted just on it. In many of the cases where people were released due to DNA evidence, they were convicted partly based on snitch's testimony.

1 posted on 12/17/2024 12:09:39 AM PST by xxqqzz

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson