Sunday, October 23, 2016

California Appeals Court upholds disqualification of entire DA's office -- UPDATE

Back in March of 2015, I reported that a state judge in California removed an entire DA's office from a high-profile murder prosecution because prosecutorial misconduct had tainted the entire office’s handling of the case. The judge reassigned the case to the California attorney general, who appealed the ruling.  Go here for a New York Times article with more information on the original story.  The state legislature eventually adopted a statute to manage prosecutorial misconduct.  See here.

More than a year later, the California appeals court heard the oral arguments over whether the Orange County judge was right to remove the entire district attorney’s office.  The ABA Journal has more information here.

UPDATE (12/3/16):   In what the ABA Journal is calling a "blistering" and "sharply worded" ruling, the Court has upheld the order disqualifying the entire DA's office.  The opinion can be found here.

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