SANTA ANA, Calif. — The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, ending a federal investigation into the violation of the rights of criminal defendants through the systematic misuse of jailhouse informants to garner incriminating evidence, authorities said Wednesday.

The lengthy Department of Justice Civil Rights Division investigation centered on local law enforcement’s misuse of jailhouse informants between 2007 and 2016. The “snitch scandal” was uncovered by an Orange County public defender who also discovered that prosecutors had failed to disclose to defense attorneys evidence about the informants that could have helped their clients, which is required by law.

In a report released in 2022, federal investigators found that Orange County sheriff’s deputies for years maintained and concealed systems to track, manage and reward informants, including giving informants special rewards, such as In-N-Out burgers, or privileges — such as reduced sentences — for their work.

At the time of the report’s release, federal investigators acknowledged that the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Department — both of which have undergone leadership changes since the time period covered by the investigation — had made reforms in light of the snitch scandal.

But investigators at the time also argued the changes did not go far enough and that the relationship between the two agencies needed to improve to regain the public’s trust.

Since the release of that 2022 report, “extensive cooperation” between the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and federal civil rights officials and “systematic improvements” already implemented by local prosecutors led to the newly-announced out-of-court agreement, according to a Justice Department statement. Those improvements, federal officials said, include a policy suspending the use of informants in criminal cases unless directly authorized by District Attorney Todd Spitzer.

“Under the Sixth Amendment, law enforcement cannot use custodial informants as their agents to elicit incriminating statements from defendants represented by counsel,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

“We commend the District Attorney and his staff for initiating corrective action at OCDA to comply with constitutional requirements. The District Attorney’s proactive efforts, together with today’s agreement, will not only protect the constitutional rights of individual defendants; they will also help restore the public’s confidence in the fundamental fairness of the criminal justice system in Orange County.”

The Orange County snitch scandal came to light during the tenure of the county’s previous district attorney, Tony Rackauckas. Spitzer, the current DA, came to office promising not to tolerate what he described as the “win at all costs” mentality of his predecessor.

“I am incredibly proud of the work that we as a team have done over the last six years to implement the positive, sustained reforms necessary to prevent the sins of the past administration,” Spitzer said about the federal agreement. “This work is a clear reflection on our continuing dedication to the just, honest, and ethical administration of the law. I am grateful for the partnership of the U.S. Department of Justice and its recognition of our unrelenting proactive approach to addressing these issues and safeguarding against violations of the United States Constitution.

“The rule of law must be followed without exception,” Spitzer added. “Without it there can be no trust and there can be no justice. Today marks a significant achievement in restoring the public trust.”

Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders — who first uncovered the misuse of informants and concealment of evidence while representing Seal Beach mass shooter Scott Dekraai — said years of investigations have expanded the breadth of the snitch scandal.

“What we have learned since the inception of the DOJ’s investigation is that the concealment of informant evidence has been even larger in scope and more egregious that what we first alleged ten years ago in People v. Dekraai, and which the Justice Department documented in its 2022 report,” Sanders said on Wednesday. "As a result, today’s announcement cannot be viewed as the end of this terrible scandal. There is so much more work to be done.”

That work includes finding more help for defendants directly affected by the snitch scandal, the defense attorney said.

“Despite all that has been uncovered since 2014, there still exists no government or privately-funded effort to help the accused address the informant-related misconduct that has plagued the Orange County justice system for decades,” Sanders said. “Without an energized effort to re-examine potentially impacted cases, there will never be justice for the many defendants whose constitutional rights were decimated.”

Sanders learned in the Dekraai case that an informant who had been used in multiple other cases had been improperly used by prosecutors and deputies to get incriminating evidence from Dekraai inside the jail, despite Dekraai having been formally charge and represented by an attorney. That discovery led then-Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals’ to remove the entire Orange County District Attorney’s Office from the Dekraai case and drop the death penalty from consideration and instead sentence him to life in prison.

Despite vehement denials by former DA Rackauckas and former Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, federal investigators — as well as California appeals court judges — ultimately confirmed the systematic abuse of defendants’ right to counsel and the withholding of evidence on informants that Sanders first brought to light.

Under the new agreement with the Justice Department, local prosecutors agreed to “maintain changes to OCDA policies, training, document and information systems and internal audits, as well as to engage with representatives of the Orange County criminal justice system on additional improvements,” federal officials said. The agreement also gives the Justice Department “full and direct access to independently validate that the reforms have taken hold at OCDA and are achieving their intended results,” federal officials added.

While the federal investigation into the DA’s office is now concluded, the related investigation into the Sheriff’s Department remains active.

Negotiations with the Sheriff’s Department regarding “remedial measures” related to the use of informants are ongoing, Justice Department officials said on Wednesday.

The announcement of the agreement with the DA’s office came days before the start of the second Trump administration is expected to bring significant changes to the upper leadership of federal law enforcement agencies.

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