California Office of the Attorney General

John Eastman Goes to Washington

[Moxley Confidential] The Chapman University law professor and anti-gay marriage activist stars in a House committee vaudeville act

Attorney Unveils Suit Alleging Cover-up of Disgusting Child Abuse by DA, County Agency

A lead attorney in the Miramonte Elementary School child abuse case that broke in Los Angeles last year has turned his attention to the Orange County Social Services Agency. Brian Claypool accuses the agency's Child Protective Services (CPS) workers of "aiding and abetting the commission of child ab ... More >>

Scott Steiner's Sex Court

[Moxley Confidential] Orange County Superior Court judge Scott Steiner recused himself from corruption case after adultery exposed

Todd Spitzer Calls For "Thorough" OC Judicial Sex Probe Investigation

Newly-elected Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer has requested that the county's Office of Independent Review (OIR) monitor a probe into whether a superior court judge committed any crimes involving a possible quid pro quo sexual affair."I want to make sure that the investigation is thorough," Sp ... More >>

California Attorney General Is Investigating Orange County Judge For Alleged Quid Pro Quo Sexual Affair

The California Attorney General's office is investigating allegations that a married Orange County Superior Court judge may have enjoyed a quid pro quo sexual affair that landed a woman a job in the District Attorney's office, OC Weekly has learned.Judge Scott Steiner, the target of the investigatio ... More >>

Orange County Jail Deputies Cleared In Inmate Abuse Lawsuit

Four years ago, an inmate in the Orange County Jail filed a lawsuit alleging that from 2004 to 2006 a group of deputies denied him clean clothes, clean bedding, rooftop exercise, mail, messages, toilets, water, medical attention and access to a complaint system absent retaliation.But this month a fe ... More >>

Proposition 35 Backers Go to Court to Help Enforce Initiative Targeting Human Trafficking

Now that proponents of Proposition 35 have won at the polls, they are going to court to guarantee they'll be the ones who help enforce the "Stop Human Trafficking in California" initiative. Chris Kelly of the Safer California Foundation and Daphne Phung of California Against Slavery filed paperwor ... More >>

CHP Cited Orange County DA's Top Adviser For DUI After Halloween Festivities

The California Highway Patrol cited Mike Schroeder--the top personal adviser to Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackaukas and a former chairman of the California Republican Party--for allegedly driving under the influence after this year's Halloween festivities, the Weekly has learned.Al Stokke ... More >>

Theresa Smith, Mother of Caesar Cruz Shot by Anaheim Police in 2009, Speaks Out About Riots

Theresa Smith has been peacefully demonstrating outside of the Anaheim Police Department ever since her son, 35-year-old father of five Caesar Cruz, was shot by Anaheim Police on Dec. 11, 2009. Since the weekend, the city has seen protests and civil unrest as residents have taken to the streets ... More >>

Judge Frank F. Fasel Slammed By Appellate Court For Illegal Sentencing of OC Meth Dealer

For eons, Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel has run his courtroom with military precision and zero tolerance for cheap antics or insubordination.Who knew Fasel--who has an ideal, stern poker face and the demeanor of an overworked mortician--is also a rule breaker?This month, a Califo ... More >>

Barbara McClanahan, Deputy DA Said to Call Seal Beach Massacre Her "Fantasy," Subject of Restraining Order Sought by Her Boss

​A Barstow deputy district attorney had been set to appear in court March 8 concerning threats she is alleged to have made against her boss that included the remark last October's Seal Beach shooting massacre--the worst in Orange County history--was her "fantasy."But now Barbara McClanahan, a d ... More >>

Telemarketer Who Scammed Job Seekers Ordered to Give Up His Surf City Condo

​An executive with a sales company that scammed job applicants out of money through online want ads, has been forced by the Federal Trade Commission to relinquish his half-million-dollar Huntington Beach condominium.Technically, the FTC imposed a $13 million judgment against Santa Barbara-based te ... More >>

Christopher Wright Fox and Curtis James Melone Loan-Mod Prosecution Does Not Surprise Blogger Who Has Dogged Them

​When the California Attorney General last week announced the arrests of Christopher Wright Fox (left) and his partner Curtis James Melone for allegedly collecting more than $6 million from homeowners nationwide for loan modification services that were never performed, Moe Bedard was not surprise ... More >>

ExtenZe Boned for Continued Male Enhancement Lies

​So here's the long and short of it: Biotab Nutraceuticals in 2006 settled for $300,000 a consumer lawsuit brought by the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA), which alleged the maker of ExtenZe falsely claimed without any substantiation that the boner pills would enhance a man's peni ... More >>

Jerry Steven Garcia's Births, Deaths and Lies

Lawsuits and Medical Board documents paint a grim picture of the gynecologist's practice

Appeals Court Slams OC Judge Marc Kelly in Gang Case

Jaime Morgutia​Make no mistake: M. Marc Kelly is usually a tough and decent Orange County superior court judge, unless the guilty defendant is a dirty cop and then Kelly goes softer than an ACLU lawyer high on a dose of Ecstasy.But Kelly also thought that he'd given a break to 5-foot-11, 315-pound ... More >>

Rapist/Killer Edward Patrick Morgan Wins Supreme Court Point

Eddie Morgan​You've probably never heard of Edward Patrick Morgan, a onetime La Palma and Anaheim resident who charmed his way into the lives of awestruck young Orange County women with smooth talk, model good looks, perfect hair and a fat-free ripped 5-foot-8, 200-pound physique.But Morgan is a m ... More >>

Sunday News Notes

News highlights include:Relax, sir. It's only .000034 percent of your wealth.​Is OC's Biggest Billionaire Stingy?Two of Donald L. Bren's children are expected to take their father to court this week in Los Angeles in hopes of winning $800,000 in retroactive monthly child support payments because, ... More >>

AG Appeals OC Wife Killer Case to Supreme Court

Marvin V. Smith​The California Attorney General has decided to appeal a Court of Appeal ruling that overturned the first degree murder conviction of Marvin Vernis Smith, a wealthy liquor store owner who police say murdered his wife with a fire place poker and then staged the crime scene to look li ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

From the Irvine Tea Party: It's Not Okay to F*ck Obama

Spencer Kornhaber / OC WeeklyA Wheel of Fortune joke? Really?​That sign seems mean, right? Well, some people at today's tea party at the Irvine Auto Center agreed. They knew that scummy media types (ahem) would take pictures of it. So they made it go away.

UPDATED: Did the Brown Act Put San Juan Capistrano in Hot Water with the DA?

Taken at the 1935 Swallows Day paradeOriginally published at 1:10 p.m. Updated 2:44 with comment from OCDA.​As is fashionable nowadays, last night's city council meeting in San Juan Capistrano saw members of the public comparing elected officials to mid-century fascist monsters. The tyra ... More >>

Does AG's Report on Haidl Bust Clear Bill Hunt?

Carona: Tried to fake history with a lapdog deputy​Over at the Friends For Fullerton's Future blog, Travis Kiger has posted a copy of the controversial California Attorney General's report on the Greg Haidl pot bust incident that I first broke in December 2003. The AG's six-year-old report has bec ... More >>

Initiative Would Raise Alcohol Taxes Up to 12775%

One of the great pleasures of living in California is that, comparatively speaking, our alcohol laws and fees are not draconian. We don't have blue laws, liquor can be sold in normal supermarkets, and there are precious few moratoria on liquor licenses here in the Golden State. Alcohol is freely ava ... More >>

OC Register Editor, Publisher Weakly Capitulate to Pedo-Priest Apologists

Brusic: Would rather apologize to pedo-apologists than skewer them...​I've been away for a bit, so am late to this story: last week, Orange County Register reporter Teri Sforza did an innocuous-enough post titled, "Think you can spot the sex offender in the crowd?" that dealt with some California ... More >>

The Bad Detective

One PI with a questionable past has a captive audience: the OC jail inmates whose cases he handles

To Haiti With Love--From A Convicted Fraudster?

Susan Graf served 10 months in a Wyoming prison for fraud​ On Jan. 21, the San Clemente Times ran a heartwarming story about local citizens eager to help the suffering people of Haiti in the wake of that country's devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. "Suzie Graf just knew she had to do something," the ... More >>

OC Vietnamese Gang-Related Slaying Conviction Rejected

Nguyen gets a judicial miracle​There may have been screams of joy in a California prison last night and cries of frustration inside the district attorney's office. Late yesterday afternoon, a California Court of Appeal overturned an Orange County jury's 2007 special circumstances murder convi ... More >>

Top DA Arrested

According to sources at the Orange County Sheriff's Department, David L. Brent--the veteran prosecutor who runs the district attorney's acclaimed homicide unit--was arrested with his wife on Christmas Day following a domestic dispute.No other information was available officially, except that Brent w ... More >>

Ex-Dana Rohrabacher Aide Turned Convicted Pedophile Gets Out of Prison

Nielsen is outJeffrey Ray Nielsen--the Orange County Republican activist, close Washington, D.C., aide to Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and convicted pedophile--is out of prison and living in Laguna Beach, according to a California Attorney General's website that tracts the where ... More >>

Justices Reject Convictions Against Man Who Allegedly Shot At Cops

A dog of a case?​The Orange County District Attorney's Office twice has won convictions against Ernest Benefiel related to highly questionable allegations he assaulted police officers in a bizarre 2004 Fullerton incident, and now a state appeals court for the second time has rejected the prosecuti ... More >>

County Lawyer Seeks State Probe of OC Fair Privatization Plan

What has Dick been doing?​The County of Orange's lawyer is calling on the California Attorney General to investigate potential illegal deals that could give private control of the $100 million-plus Orange County Fairgrounds property in Costa Mesa to well-connected political insiders.In an Oct. 30, ... More >>

Author Tells of Her Relationship with Killer Skylar Deleon

"I sat down with a killer the other day," begins Tina Dirmann's feature in the March issue of Orange Coast. "Funny, I thought, how, up close the face of evil often doesn't look so very evil at all."Dirmann's subject is Skylar Deleon, the former Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers actor turned con man, dru ... More >>

The Reg Gets the Story

So, Peggy Lowe at the Register broke the story that His Indictedness (hey, that title still works!) would announce his resignation today on the department's website. And here's the money quote—literally: By stepping down from his elected position, Carona will also be able to accept the free lega ... More >>

We Defend Barbara Coe--Again!

Told you it wasn't the CCIR who sent out the letter telling Latinos immigrants can't vote. Turns out the California Attorney General's office fingered Tan Nguyen, who seemed like the ideal Republican congressional candidate--minority, immigrant-hating, and carpet-bagging. Jail time is rumored for th ... More >>

Letter to Latinos in Sanchez-Nguyen Race

Here is the letter in English that was sent to people with Latino surnames in the central Orange County congressional district represented by Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), who is opposed in the November election by Republican Tan Nguyen. The California Attorney General's office reportedly suspe ... More >>

OC Law Enforcement 'Poisoned'

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer questions the District Attorneys judgment, fairness

Rape-Tape Escape?

Haidl defense says the DA altered key evidence in gang-gape case

Out of His Skull

What do you get when you combine paranoia, ego and almost limitless power?
Answer: DA Tony Rackauckas

No Apologies

New controversy surrounds Anaheim School District prez Harald Martin