Producers at 60 Minutes announced this week they will air a May 21 CBS broadcast that will include a feature on Orange County’s notorious jailhouse informant scandal.
The controversy is sensational but also complex, especially given strenuous cover-up efforts by District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, two unapologetic politicians.
(You can watch a preview clip of the show’s OC segment HERE.)
So, we’ve collected a series of articles from various news outlets to aid the show’s viewers understand what has become one of California’s most embarrassing, ongoing criminal justice disasters.
Here you go:
How Tony Rackauckas Took A Slam Dunk Death Penalty Case And Turned It Into His Wore Crisis, OC Weekly;
With Deputies Refusing To Testify Under Oath in Snitch Scandal, It’s Time For A Federal Probe, OC Weekly;
The Orange County Informant Scandal Just Got A Lot Nuttier, The Washington Post;
Who Wants To Free A Southern California Serial Killer? Orange County DA Tony Rackauckas, OC Weekly;
Anatomy of a Snitch Scandal: How Orange County Prosecutors Covered Up Rampant Misuse of Jailhouse Informants, The Intercept;
OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens Refuses to Surrender Death Penalty Case Records, OC Weekly;
Another Secret Cache of Notes on Jail Informants Surface in Orange County Snitch Scandal, Huffington Post;
Meet OC & LA Law Enforcement’s Favorite Rats, OC Weekly;
District Attorney Tony Rackauckas Picks Watchdog With Troubling Ties, OC Weekly;
In Orange County’s Courthouse Scandals, Prosecutors and Sheriff United in Cover-Ups, OC Weekly;
How OC Law Enforcement Locked Up An Innocent 14-Year-Old Boy For Two Years, OC Weekly;
U.S. Examines Whether Orange County Violated Defendants’ Rights, The New York Times;
California Justices Hand DA Tony Rackauckas His Latest Embarrassment, OC Weekly;
Jailhouse Informant Scandal Is Rocking Criminal Justice System In Orange County, KABC News Los Angeles;
Accused Murderer Awaits Execution While OC Prosecutors Hide Exculpatory Evidence, OC Weekly;
Judge Vacates Jail Informant Secrecy Order Two Days After Critical OC Weekly Article, OC Weekly;
New Mysteries Mount in Old Murder Case “Solved” by DA Tony Rackauckas, OC Weekly;
Hidden Injustice: County Counsel Works To Keep OC’s Snitch Scandal Under Wraps, OC Weekly;
O.C. Prosecutors Steering Cases Away from Judge Thomas Goethals, Los Angeles Times;
DA Tony Rackauckas Still Hopes “Luck” Stories Explain Away OC Snitch Scandal, OC Weekly;
Judge Goethals: If Somebody Destroys Jailhouse Snitch Records, They’re Going To Jail, Orange County Register;
DA Tony Rackauckas Bullies Judges Who Slammed Cheating in Death Penalty Case, OC Weekly;
OC District Attorney’s Office Barred from Seal Beach Shooting Case, Voice of OC;
Police Doctored Report, Prosecutor Lied in Wild Attempted Murder Case Near Disneyland, OC Weekly.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.