Oakland police misconduct trial misses the point

Many people may not know, but the Judge in the Oakland "Riders" case, where former Oakland police officers are being charged with serious misconduct, may be rigged.

The mainstream media has missed the point with this case -- although the Alameda DA is now prosecuting the officers, it probably has a great deal of complicity in allowing some of the most serious misconduct, framing innocent people, to take place.

According to a long term public defender, the DAs knew that one officer, Vasquez, the one who is believed to have fleed to Mexico to escape prosecution, often framed people. In fact, plea bargains offered when that officer was the only witness to an alleged crime were much more generous, precisely because the DAs knew he was likely to be lying.
(sorry, I can not find that link, it was in a legal newsletter)

For the second trial, the judge is Jeffrey Horner. There is a Catherine Horner Dobal working as a deputy DA. She may be Judge Horner's daughter. If this is so, then Horner owes Tom Orloff a favor.

In terms of strict ethics, Judge Horner should not be allowed to preside over the trial, because he has reason to be biased in favor of Orloff, and keep Orloff's staff's past acceptance of perjured testimony out of the trial, and therefore, out of the public eye.

Really, the case should have been investigated by some agency which had never been involved in accepting perjured testimony. The Attorney General, for example, or at least, some other DA's office. But, if Orloff had given the case up, he would lost control of keeping anythign embarassing to him out of the public eye.

It is also interesting how quickly the City of Oakland, in other words, Jerry Brown, paid out after the case broke. This action also protected Orloff, because, without the cases being tried, the proof that Orloff's people allowed the cops to lie will not come out in trial.

According to the news, Jerry Brown wants to run for Attorney General. My guess is, Orloff will support him, that is part of the deal they made when Brown helped Orloff with this mess.