Crime clues occasionally appear at the most unexpected of times and places, which in one particular case isn’t good news for Bruce Houlihan, director of the Orange County Crime Lab. In part of my research to write a recent cover story related to the Golden State Killer’s ties to Orange County, I read Michelle McNamara’s […]
Tony Rackauckas
Did Wrongful Conviction Built on Tainted OC Snitch Fuel Golden State Killer’s Spree?
As she prepared for bed on the final night of her life, 28-year-old Orange County resident Joan Virginia Anderson donned a blue nightgown and put her two kids—an infant girl and a 3-year-old boy—to bed. In the wee hours of that morning—March 8, 1979—Anderson found herself awakened in bed by an intruder while her husband […]
Diane Harkey Campaigns for Congress on Ethics Platform While Her Husband is Labeled a Swindler
The California Court of Appeal has affirmed a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme judgment against the husband of Orange County Republican congressional candidate Diane Harkey, who is hoping to defeat her Democratic Party opponent, Mike Levin, in November’s general election. Dan Harkey had urged the appellate panel to overturn the jury’s findings that he breached his fiduciary […]
Samuel Woodward, Accused Blaze Bernstein Murderer, Charged With Hate Crime
Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas announced today that his office is charging Samuel Woodward, 21, with a hate crime in the murder of Blaze Bernstein. Investigators uncovered new evidence revealing the “dark side of Woodward” in leading to the new charge. If convicted, the enhancement brings with it a maximum punishment of life without […]
DA Tony Rackauckas Continues Unethical Discovery Practices After Court Rebuke
Though in reality he was already well aware and supportive of the illegal conduct, Tony Rackauckas two years ago claimed his Orange County district attorney’s office (OCDA) finally discovered evidence–a Special Handling Log, to be precise—that proved sheriff’s deputies in the jails had run unconstitutional scams with informants targeting pre-trial defendants and then hid records […]
Crime Lab Director Says Too Busy to Search for Forensic Science Errors
Bruce Houlihan enjoys puzzles, but the Orange County Crime Lab director is purposely failing to solve one of the biggest riddles of his career: Why did his office quietly give conflicting, pro-prosecution, expert testimony in two cold-case, rape/murder trials? Houlihan met that question—pending at least since 2016, when the Weekly revealed the controversy—with palpable silence […]
Prosecutor-Backed Snitch Didn’t Impress Murder Trial Jury
Prosecutors in Tony Rackauckas’ Orange County district attorney’s office (OCDA) had hoped a jury would believe the cockamamie, self-serving story of a paid-off snitch to convict a government target, William James Shoop, of a July 2016 murder in an Anaheim motel. But Weekly readers know based on our two prior news stories that informant Bryan […]
Appeals Court Backs Extortion Conviction for Ex-OC Democratic Party Boss
The California Court of Appeal on June 20 rejected a former Orange County Democratic Party boss’s appeal of a 2014 extortion conviction involving a sexual affair with the wife of a wealthy Republican campaign contributor of District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. An appellate panel comprised of justices Richard Aronson, Kathleen O’Leary and Eileen Moore declared they […]
California AG’s Protection of Dirty Cops Angers Murder Victim’s Husband
In his campaign to expose Orange County law enforcement corruption, Paul Wilson—who lost his wife in the area’s worse, senseless mass murder in 2011—published a recent editorial pressuring an oddly resistant California Attorney Xavier Becerra into holding dirty cops accountable. A superior court judge found that multiple Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) deputies repeatedly lied […]
A Clockwork Orange: Why the Big A Must Remain Shovel-Ready
There may be an alternative use for a giant shovel that showed up in front of the Big A in Anaheim. Representatives of the city, the Angels, Southern California Gas Co., and Anaheim Fire & Rescue used the 30-foot shovel on April 20 to promote National Safe Digging Month. Close to 3,000 cases of people […]
Snitch for Scandal-Plagued OC Prosecutor’s Office Is a Shameless Fabulist
If he’d chosen acting as his profession instead of narcotics trafficking and stealing when not partying with Southern California white-supremacist gangsters, Bryan Jason Goldstein could have convincingly played a supporting role as a mob soldier on The Sopranos. Goldstein has the confident stride and husky physique; the 6-foot-2, 250-pounder tries to attract women by wearing […]
Cholo Charged With Vandalizing Mexican-American Veterans Mural in Santa Ana
The Orange County District Attorney’s office announced felony charges against a local gang member following the vandalism of a beloved Mexican-American war veterans mural in Santa Ana two months ago. District attorney Tony Rackauckas, Santa Ana police chief David Valentin and city councilman Juan Villegas gathered in front of artist Carlos Aguilar’s “Heroes Among Us” tribute […]
Taxpayers Subsidize Another Orange County Sheriff’s Bad Arrest Case
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
ACLU: New OCDA Social Media Policy Still Unconstitutional
In a scathing letter last month, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California took the Orange County District Attorney’s office to task for scrubbing critical comments from its social media platforms. The civil liberties group argued that the offense, including blocking certain users, amounted to an unconstitutional suppression of free speech. A few days […]
OCDA Withdraws Two Gang Injunctions Filed in Placentia
For more than a decade, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas filed gang injunctions over swaths of Mexican OC with few troubles in court. Even after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals deemed the OCDA’s gang injunction against Orange Varrio Cypress in Orange violated due process rights in a 2011 ruling, the agency pushed forward, […]
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 […]
OCDA Adopts New Social Media Policy After ACLU’s Scolding Letter
UPDATE, MAR. 1, 4:00 P.M.: The Orange County District Attorney’s office adopted a new social media policy today following the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California’s letter last month accusing the agency of first amendment violations for deleting critical comments and blocking users. The civil liberties group gave the OCDA a Mar. 7 deadline to […]