jailhouse informants
As attorney general investigations languish, continuing misconduct in Orange County threatens to unravel dozens of new cases, a public defender says.
A jail informant scandal has unraveled numerous high-profile cases and threatens to upend still more.
As prosecutors fixated on the death penalty for a killer, some family members of his victims found solace in an unlikely figure... the gunman's attorney.
Legal experts say the jurors' "witch hunt" finding demonstrates the need for an independent probe in Orange County.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Mark Cleveland, a jailhouse informant, worked with Orange County prosecutors for decades.
As sheriff's department officials clam up, the sentencing in an Orange County massacre remains mired in misconduct.
But that hasn't stopped his Orange County prosecutors from using them to secure convictions for decades.
The snitch scandal has already upended more than a dozen Southern California murder cases.
A cache of newly unsealed documents point to a thriving informant system. Only the sheriff's office seems unconvinced.
The deputies' notes reveal deeply disturbing and unconstitutional behavior by members of law enforcement in county jails.