Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes holds a press conference in Santa Ana on Thursday, September 24, 2020 to discuss Orange County sheriff’s deputies involved in the fatal shooting in San Clemente of Kurt Andras Reinhold, 42, a homeless Black man. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Orange
County Sheriff Don Barnes holds a press conference in Santa Ana on Thursday,
September 24, 2020 to discuss Orange County sheriff’s deputies involved in the
fatal shooting in San Clemente of Kurt Andras Reinhold, 42, a homeless Black
man. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
In
a sheriff’s department that has seen its share of scandals, the one involving
the improper booking of evidence raised particular concerns because it touches
on the heart of the judicial system: the veracity of the information used to
convict criminal defendants.
A
2019 audit from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) found that more
than 30 percent of the evidence that deputies collected over a two-year period
was booked late – sometimes by more than a month. That undermined at least 67
criminal cases, with the public defender arguing that this misbehavior
tarnished thousands of cases.
Although
the department disciplined some deputies and instituted new policies, an Orange
County Grand Jury report found that no supervisors were punished and that the
department still is doing an inadequate job assuring that problem doesn’t
fester.
“An
audit of OCSD department reports submitted from March 2018 forward has not been
conducted to confirm that current OCSD policies and procedures regarding
evidence booking and reporting are being followed,” the grand jury concluded.
“There is no documentation confirming that OCSD lieutenants perform evidence
booking spot audits consistently across all divisions.”
In
testimony before the grand jury, sheriff’s officials admitted supervisors
allowed deputies to engage in these late evidence bookings, according to news
reports. Based on the department’s original audit, the grand jury noted that
the evidence-booking problem stemmed from a “culture of idleness” rather than
“criminal intent.”
Whatever
the intent, the sheriff’s department needs to treat this matter with the utmost
seriousness and better address what the report termed a “failure of
leadership.” The sheriff has had plenty of time to improve its management
controls, so there’s no excuse for any continuing booking deficiencies.
The
grand jury credited the sheriff for taking immediate action following the
Orange County Register’s revelation of the scandal, but it has yet to implement
sufficient management changes.
The
department has 60 days to respond to the report. Sheriff Don Barnes needs to
immediately address lingering shortcomings, which will help prove that it has
embraced the cultural changes the grand jury has recommended.
Orange
County Register
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
June 2, 2021
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