News, O.C. officials repeatedly violated the constitution in jail informant scandal, federal report finds : detailed suggestions and opinions about O.C. officials repeatedly violated the constitution in jail informant scandal, federal report finds .
Orange County prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies systematically violated the constitution by using jailhouse snitches to get incriminating statements from other inmates, a scathing federal probe has found.
The 63-page report released Thursday follows a nearly six-year investigation into both agencies by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, following a scandal that rocked the Orange County justice system.
It isn’t uncommon for jailed informants to offer information to prosecutors or investigators. But federal investigators allege the sheriff’s department and prosecutors used some inmates in the jail as “agents of law enforcement” and created a system of snitches that was maintained, rotated and concealed in order to “track, manage and reward those custodial informants.”
The system of jail informants operated for years, with officials orchestrating a coverup to hide its repeated use from defense attorneys, judges and the public, according to the report.
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