Sheriff’s supervisors in Orange County jail snitch scandal promoted to top executive ranks

Orange County sheriff’s supervisors linked to the misuse of jailhouse informants during a scandal that rocked the county’s justice system more than four years ago were recently promoted to the upper echelons of the department.

Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, who uncovered the civil rights violations at the jail in 2014, said in court papers Friday that the promotions of Jon Briggs and William Baker to assistant sheriff showed the department’s insincerity in correcting the misdeeds.

“Briggs and members of the executive team created an embarrassingly misleading narrative designed to protect supervisors and leadership by suggesting they were hapless victims of rogue deputies who inexplicably hid their informant efforts from their supervisors, even as those deputies documented their work daily in a readily accessible log,” Sanders wrote. “Of course, the OCSD’s narrative was nonsensical.”

Officials from the Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney’s Office did not return requests for comment on the promotions, which are effective Monday, Jan. 7, but have not yet been announced to the rank-and-file.

Sanders was the driving force in the investigation of prosecutors and deputies who misused jailhouse informants to gather evidence against targeted inmates. Using informants is generally legal, accept against defendants who are legally represented and have been formally charged.

The snitch scandal prompted a Superior Court judge to ban the entire District Attorney’s Office from the prosecution of mass killer Scott Dekraai, who fatally gunned down eight people at a Seal Beach salon in 2011. The same judge, citing what he considered Sheriff Sandra Hutchens’ refusal to turn over informant documents, banned the death penalty in Dekraai’s case and sentenced him to eight terms of life in prison.

Judge Thomas Goethals also accused three deputies of not testifying truthfully or withholding information, sparking a state investigation in 2016 that is still ongoing.

The Dekraai case became a rallying point in county Supervisor Todd Spitzer’s successful fight to unseat 20-year District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. Spitzer will be sworn in Monday as the new district attorney. Retiring Sheriff Hutchens is being replaced by current Undersheriff Don Barnes, who handily won election in November despite the informant scandal and other problems that he says have been fixed.

Sanders is now trying to get the district attorney’s office removed from an unremarkable drug case, based on the argument that prosecutors and sheriff’s officials are withholding evidence.

In a motion for that case, People v. Oscar Galeno Garcia, Sanders complained that sheriff’s deputies who managed the misuse of jailhouse informants and supervisors who should have been aware were not disciplined.

Sanders pointed to Briggs, a former lieutenant who oversaw the now defunct Special Handling Unit, which recruited and organized jail informants, from September 2010 to January 2012.

While Briggs was in charge, the informant program was in full force, as evidenced by the daily log kept by deputies and allegedly concealed unlawfully from defendants, Sanders wrote.

During a 2016 hearing on the misuse of informants — including the bugging of jail cells — Briggs testified before Judge Goethals that he was oblivious to the operations.

Briggs also conceded during testimony that he learned deputies were using a housing area known as “L-20” — otherwise called a “snitch tank” — to unite inmates with informants.

Briggs testified the practice was “totally inappropriate.”

At one point with Briggs on the witness stand, the judge asked him: “So in hindsight, these deputies who were getting all the accolades and awards, should have been facing disciplinary action?”

“Absolutely, your honor,” Briggs responded.

But Sanders alleges that former special-handling Deputy Jonathan Larson was not disciplined, but rather appointed lead investigator in the Mexican Mafia-targeted Operation Scarecrow. Sanders alleged that Larson, at the time, was under investigation by the state for his role in the snitch scandal and had perjured himself in court.

Larson wrote the key legal document that was used to obtain multiple wiretaps. Affidavits based on Larson’s document noted his past experience cultivating informants. But none of the judges who approved the wiretaps — or the grand jury that issued indictments — were informed of Larson’s troubled past.

Two other special-handling deputies also were promoted to investigator status.

Baker, who is now an assistant sheriff, was described by Sanders as the day-to-day face of the department’s response to the snitch scandal.

Sanders, in Friday’s motion, said the department can’t be trusted to police itself, and prosecutors must step in and put politics aside.

“The recent promotions of Briggs, J. Larson, and Baker serve as powerful reminders that the only possible path to disclosures, regarding deputies who committed informant-related misconduct, is via a prosecutorial agency that will cast aside all concerns other than honoring its legal and ethical obligations,” Sanders wrote.

A hearing on Sanders’ effort to boot the District Attorney’s Office from the Garcia case will be held Friday before Judge James Rogan.