Where would local law enforcement officers twice torment the same innocent man and twice lose resulting California civil litigation with taxpayers footing the bill? Answer: Orange County, where folks like District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens routinely defend police shenanigans. The latest fiasco involves Merritt L. Sharp III. In 1997, Garden Grove police […]
Moxley Confidential
BREAKING: FBI Accuses U.S. Marine of Molesting Japanese Student on American Airlines
The FBI is accusing an intoxicated U.S. Marine of sexually molesting a Japanese student during a 10-hour American Airlines flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles. According to FBI Special Agent Dana Murphy, Zachary Kahl this month violated federal law by knowingly engaging “in sexual contact without permission” with a victim identified only as “Y.U.” in […]
Sheriff’s Orange County Crime Lab Murder Scandal Unfolds in Courts
It took nearly two decades for anyone outside of law enforcement to discover that an Orange County Crime Lab official aided one prosecutor in winning a murder trial with sworn forensic scientific testimony and a year later altered her opinion to help a second deputy DA prevail in a separate capital case without jurors knowing […]
Prominent Newport Beach Lawyer Accused of Dodging $10 Million Malpractice Debt
If you believe Phillip Greer, he could be California’s most poverty-stricken, veteran lawyer famous for representing embattled Orange County Republican politicians from Congressman Ed Royce to state Assemblywoman Janet Nguyen to Supervisor Shawn Nelson. Greer has lived for decades in an expansive $2.1 million Newport Coast home close to the Pacific Ocean but, after losing […]
FBI Seizes $3 Million From Owners of Orange County Nursing College in Fraud Probe
Accusing the owners of Pacific College, a private Orange County nursing school, of operating a brazen student financial aid scam, the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking legal ownership of more than $3 million FBI agents recently seized following a corruption probe. “Beginning in November 2012 and continuing through the present day, the FBI, the […]
SoCal Murder Victim’s Husband and Killer’s Attorney Form Unlikely Bond
CHAPTER ONE Having waited nearly four years to see punishment for the unhinged, heavily armed man who in 2011 murdered his wife and seven other people in Orange County’s worst mass shooting, Paul Wilson stood before Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Goethals on March 20, 2015, incredulous that People v. Scott Dekraai would take more […]
Orange County DA Tony Rackauckas Mocks Court of Appeal’s Snitch Ruling
Before letting police officers answer questions on the witness stand about possible crimes, prosecutors usually establish credibility by eliciting their work experience. Most cops impressively recall the day, month and year of every promotion, even in multidecade careers. But recently inside a Little Saigon-area courtroom, Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) deputy Cyril Foster appeared […]
Bloody Orange County Cop v. Lawyer Fight Lands in Federal Court
A violent state courthouse encounter between an Orange County district attorney’s office (OCDA) investigator and a criminal defense attorney tied to the infamous jailhouse informant scandal officially landed inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse today with both sides using profanity-laced opening statements to portray their clients as the victim in a bloody 2016 ruckus. […]
Dominant Santa Ana Landlord Michael Harrah Trips in Original Mike’s Restaurant Lawsuit
Admirers and critics alike consider Michael Harrah, the Newport Beach real-estate developer who owns Original Mike’s Restaurant, one of Southern California’s most daring, colorful entrepreneurs. Harrah bought The Orange County Register headquarters in 2014 and this year attempted to lure Jeff Bezos’ $5 billion Amazon plant to Santa Ana. The 6-foot-6, thrill-seeking, white-bearded, Whittier native […]
ACLU Aims Lawsuit At Remorseless Orange County Law Enforcement Bosses in Snitch Scandal
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today announced a lawsuit against Orange County’s top two remorseless law enforcement officials for continuing to trample the constitutional rights of charged, pre-trial defendants with the illegal use of jailhouse informants. “The Orange County criminal justice system is in disrepair and disrepute,” the ACLU’s Peter Eliasberg and Brandan Hemme […]
OC Crime-Lab Boss Dodges Inquiry About Forensic-Science Flip-Flops in Murder Cases
Having come under fire for his Orange County Crime Lab rendering conflicting, pro-prosecution forensic-science testimony that separate murder trial juries unwittingly accepted, director Bruce Houlihan launched a two-prong strategy: deny any wrongdoing to a news reporter, then dodge questions from the attorney who discovered the scandal. But Houlihan’s unforced errors aren’t sitting well with Superior […]
And Your Next Orange County DA Is . . . Susan Kang Schroeder?
Appearing on an Orange County cable broadcast, embattled District Attorney Tony Rackauckas made a startling, possibly accidental admission: If he wins re-election in June, he plans to handpick an unelected successor who will control the powerful government position for as long as four years. In response to a question about why he wants a sixth […]
Judges Back Cop Liability In 39-Bullet Barrage Case
Two Long Beach police officers who killed an unarmed man during a 39-bullet barrage in 2013 have lost their appeal to escape $2.9 million in liability. Following a report in the Weekly, a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit this week backed a judge and jury’s findings against officers John […]
SoCal Cops Are Still Defending 39-Bullet Barrage on Unarmed Man
Having spotted a vehicle-code violation they believed deserved a near-midnight investigation in November 2013, Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) cops stopped a purple Mazda Protege containing three black residents allegedly because of defective license-plate illumination. Officers patted down the occupants and found no weapons. However, Tyler Woods, one of the passengers, gave false identification and […]
Cop-Protected Orange County Snitch Avoids Murder Beefs With Laughable Tales
Minutes before 10 on the morning of July 14, 2016, five heavily armed Anaheim Police Department (APD) officers wearing ballistic vests took positions outside a one-bedroom, one-bath, 740-square-foot, $200,000 condo in Whittier. Officers waited cautiously for the emergence of Bryan Jason Goldstein, a 32-year-old associate of Southern California white-supremacist gangsters. To gain a judge’s approval […]
Massive Orange County Snitch Scandal Document Dump Wrecks Federal Case
Inside Orange County’s Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse on Feb. 23, the 4-year-old jailhouse-informant scandal created by the deceitful duo of District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens took another casualty: the U.S. Attorney’s office inside the Department of Justice (DOJ). But the trauma isn’t worthy of sympathy. Sadly, the Santa Ana DOJ branch is […]
Onetime Orange County Political Operative Faces 8-Year Prison Trip
A former Orange County Republican Party operative who swindled $1.25 million pleaded guilty this week in an Arizona federal court to bank fraud, tax evasion, wire fraud and money laundering, and now faces a maximum eight-year prison sentence plus a minimum forfeiture of $650,000. You saw Frances Akhavi’s wild tale on these pages […]
Candidate Dave Harrington Wants Honest OC Sheriff Leadership
Addressing a Westminster gathering on a Saturday morning in February, Dave Harrington—one candidate hoping to replace retiring Sheriff Sandra Hutchens—recalled a 2017 Sacramento visit to lobby State Senate leader Kevin de León on a public-safety issue. Harrington’s story went like this: De León, a Los Angeles Democrat, walked into the room and said, “Is this […]