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 […]
Moxley Confidential
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 […]
