by Bert | Jun 18, 2019 | California
A new report just published by the ACLU calls our attention to Los Angeles County. There, District Attorney Jackie Lacey—who has been under increasing scrutiny despite her claims of being a reformer—has presided over an organization that continues to waste the...
by Bert | May 21, 2019 | California
It feels like the Orange County Snitch Scandal has been going on for years without real accountability. The only concrete actions the public has seen anybody with a position of authority take against the prosecutors were Judge Goethals’s groundbreaking decisions to...
by Bert | Mar 16, 2018 | California
The California Supreme Court this week overturned the murder conviction and death sentence of Vicente Benavides. Kern County prosecutors relied on various medical experts when it prosecuted Mr. Benavides for the 1991 murder of a 21-month old girl named Consuelo...
by Bert | Aug 23, 2017 | California
It took some time, but Judge Thomas M. Goethals in Orange County finally resolved a defense motion to preclude capital punishment against the defendant in People v. Dekraai. James Queally of the LA Times put it well: “The county’s beleaguered law enforcement leaders...
by Bert | Jun 22, 2017 | California
Since he was first elected in 2010, Contra Costa District Attorney—rather, former Contra Costa District Attorney—Mark Peterson often staked claim to “tough on crime” territory. That punitive predilection was nowhere to be seen last week when Peterson resigned from...
by Bert | Jun 7, 2017 | California
Kern County District Attorney Lisa Green is not seeking re-election in 2018; perhaps that’s a wise move, considering the circumstances. Already bogged down in considerable muck created by an ever-growing law enforcement scandal, Green’s office is responsible for a...