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Oakland police misconduct trial misses the point
This article discusses the possibility the Oakland Police Dept. misconduct case, the "Riders" trial, may be rigged to protect the District Attorney's office, and the judge in the case may be part of the deal.
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.
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.
For more information:
http://www.alamedacountyda.com
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I just wanted to add, the relationship between the DA's office, and the judges in the criminal courts, is very cozy in Alameda County. DA Tom Orloff simply makes it a point to hire the children of people who can help him with his criminal cases.
The following judges have kids working as DAs.
Judge Peggy Fulton Hora
Judge Alfred Delucchi
Judge Carlos Ynostroza
and probably Judge Kenneth Kingsbury
Judge Jeffrey Horner, and, before he died,
Judge Stanley Golde.
That is six judges, out of about 30 judges, if that, in the criminal courts, (Not one judge from the other courts seems to have a kid who wants to be a DA, because Orloff has not hired one such person)
This rate of nepotism, (and the judges are mostly guilty of ethics violations, because they are not allowed to use their position to gain advantage for their families, and are supposed to tell people about conflicts of interest, but they don't) is about 20 times higher than in all the other Bay Area counties and Sacramento, where there were only two judges with the same last names as prosecutors.
It's a dirty little secret, but not only does this take place in the DA's office, which is one of the few agenices exempt from civil service rules, (ironically, though none of this nepotism can occur without Orloff's approval, he is not violating ethics rules by doing it) but ALL THE COURTS IN ALAMEDA COUNTY are exempt from the civil service rules, and all of them refuse to release lists of their employees names, so, they too are probably practicing nepotism, you just can't always find it.
There is a lot of money given away to people peripheral to the court system, as well, conservators, court reporters, etc, etc, but it does not have to be done on merit. But that is another story.
The following judges have kids working as DAs.
Judge Peggy Fulton Hora
Judge Alfred Delucchi
Judge Carlos Ynostroza
and probably Judge Kenneth Kingsbury
Judge Jeffrey Horner, and, before he died,
Judge Stanley Golde.
That is six judges, out of about 30 judges, if that, in the criminal courts, (Not one judge from the other courts seems to have a kid who wants to be a DA, because Orloff has not hired one such person)
This rate of nepotism, (and the judges are mostly guilty of ethics violations, because they are not allowed to use their position to gain advantage for their families, and are supposed to tell people about conflicts of interest, but they don't) is about 20 times higher than in all the other Bay Area counties and Sacramento, where there were only two judges with the same last names as prosecutors.
It's a dirty little secret, but not only does this take place in the DA's office, which is one of the few agenices exempt from civil service rules, (ironically, though none of this nepotism can occur without Orloff's approval, he is not violating ethics rules by doing it) but ALL THE COURTS IN ALAMEDA COUNTY are exempt from the civil service rules, and all of them refuse to release lists of their employees names, so, they too are probably practicing nepotism, you just can't always find it.
There is a lot of money given away to people peripheral to the court system, as well, conservators, court reporters, etc, etc, but it does not have to be done on merit. But that is another story.
For more information:
http://www.alamedacountyda.com
Thats whats wrong with having LAW in the first place.
if we had no laws whatsoever everyone would be much happier and
we would be able to do anything we pleased.
if we had no laws whatsoever everyone would be much happier and
we would be able to do anything we pleased.
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