The violation of a single defendant’s constitutional rights calls into question the fairness of the entire criminal justice system.
There has been no other issue in the history of Orange County criminal justice system which has received more scrutiny, more oversight, and more reforms than the jailhouse informant scandal carried out under the administration of Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas – and rightfully so.
The media – including this very newspaper – has covered the scandal, the fallout, the numerous improvements I have insisted on to prevent these disgraceful violations from happening in the future – along with the closure of a nearly decade-long review by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division that spanned the Obama, Biden and both Trump administrations.
I ran for District Attorney in 2018 to correct the errors of the past administration and prevent future misconduct.
Those efforts—unprecedented in both scope and complexity—have been carried out despite immense challenges, including the voluminous nature of investigative materials, the age of many of the cases, and the requirement that the review be conducted by independent prosecutors unfamiliar with the original prosecutions. These demands are further intensified by the OCDA’s limited resources, as the office remains stretched thin in meeting its core responsibilities of protecting public safety, prosecuting crime, and upholding the law. While this process has been both exhaustive and resource-intensive, the OCDA has continued moving forward – because it is the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, neither the Orange County Register Editorial Board or reporter Tony Saavedra in their recent pieces cared to acknowledge those efforts, or the fact that anyone who suspects wrongful conviction or a conviction as a result of a violation of the 6th or 14th Amendments can easily petition to have the conviction reviewed, or even mention the District Attorney’s Office took on the investigation when the California Attorney General inexplicably abandoned its probe, refusing to look further into the violation of constitutional rights.
My outside investigation found a senior assistant district attorney failed to properly disclose informant information in a homicide case, ultimately resulting in a tragically reduced sentence for the killer. I fired the assigned prosecutor now Judge Ebrahim Baytieh
Two other veteran homicide prosecutors resigned or retired while they were under an investigation I commissioned. The report ultimately concluded that they committed intentional misconduct involving jailhouse informants in the prosecution of Orange County’s deadliest mass murderer, making him ineligible for the death penalty.
Throughout the nearly decade-long DOJ investigation, I repeatedly asked the DOJ for input on the numerous reforms I implemented, including the prohibition of utilizing a jailhouse informant without the express consent of the elected District Attorney, and asked for suggestions on additional reforms that the DOJ would like to have in place. The OCDA continued to demonstrate its commitment to reform through painstaking case reviews, additional training, improved policies, enhanced processes, comprehensive audits, and significant investment in advanced digital resources.
And in December 2025, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division gave its seal of approval and closed its inquiry, finding OCDA had demonstrated “sustained substantial compliance” with its recommendations, including the historical review of custodial informant cases, and that the DOJ’s assessment “has demonstrated OCDA’s commitment to sustaining systemic reforms that promote public safety and strengthen the public’s trust in the Orange County criminal justice system.”
OCDA’s small army of prosecutors continues the painstaking case review today, shuffling through hundreds of thousands of police reports, autopsies, forensic analyses, and other case documents more than a decade old to identify and address any constitutional violations as a result of DA Rackauckas’ illegal jailhouse informant program.
Throughout Saavedra’s story, defense attorneys lamented that no one has time to do the laborious case review.
Yet, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office is continuing to do that work. Not because we have the time or the money, but we are committed to doing what is right – even when no one is watching.
Todd Spitzer serves as Orange County District Attorney.