Imagine a district attorney who protects tainted, wealthy campaign contributors from prosecutions, refuses to charge sheriff’s deputies who lie repeatedly on the witness stand because the lies help his office win weak cases, allows underlings to hide exculpatory evidence from juries, promotes deputy DAs adverse to basic ethical standards, and blatantly intimidates judges who won’t ignore his misdeeds. Well, you don’t have to imagine anything. As has been obvious for years now, this is how Tony Rackauckas runs the Orange County DA’s office. What isn’t known so much is how four of our five Republican county Supervisors align themselves with his corruption by ignoring reality. In a county with a population larger than 19 states, that’s quite a feat.
