More than a decade after a jailhouse snitch scandal rocked the Orange County district attorney’s office and nearly upended the prosecution of the deadliest mass shooting in county history, federal officials announced they’ve ceased overseeing the department’s informant program, citing recent reforms.

The decision, announced Dec. 23, ends a yearlong agreement between the Department of Justice and local prosecutors who were tasked with reforming the way they use informants in criminal cases.

“The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has implemented and sustained extensive reforms that demonstrate an enduring commitment to protecting the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights of those in its jurisdiction,” said Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

According to a 2022 DOJ report, Orange County’s district attorney’s office and its sheriff’s department systematically used informants as “agents of law enforcement to elicit incriminating statements” from at least 2007 to 2016, and hid evidence of the practice in dozens of trials, including possibly exculpatory evidence obtained by informants.

The practice came to light during the trial of Scott Dekraii, who in 2011 killed his ex-wife and seven others during a shooting in Seal Beach, and sparked questions about how some evidence in that trial was obtained. The subsequent scandal loomed over the final years of Sandra Hutchens’ time as Orange County sheriff and Tony Rackauckas’ reelection bid as the county’s top prosecutor.

When he was voted into office as district attorney in 2018, Todd Spitzer vowed to reform the practice.

“After nearly a decade of investigation by the Department of Justice, the ‘win at all costs mentality’ chapter of the prior administration can finally be closed once and for all,” Spitzer said in a statement. “The violation of a single defendant’s constitutional rights calls into question the fairness of the entire criminal justice system.”

The use of jailhouse informants is not an uncommon or illegal tactic used by law enforcement. But informants can’t be used once a defendant has been charged and represented by an attorney. Investigators and prosecutors also are required to disclose to defense attorneys during trial all of the information obtained through the use of informants.

Scott Sanders, a former longtime Orange County public defender, is credited with uncovering the use of jailhouse informants during the Dekraii case. As a public defender, Sanders helped convince a judge to toss out the 2010 murder conviction of Paul Gentile Smith and order the special circumstances struck because of “reprehensible conduct” by prosecutors. A total of 23 informant-related pieces of evidence were found to be concealed or withheld during the trial. The case is set to be retried in February.

Sanders has since retired from the public defender’s office but continues to practice law and represents defendants affected by the snitch scandal. He said the Orange County district attorney’s office under Spitzer made noticeable improvements in the use of informants but criticized the Department of Justice’s decision to drop its oversight because of the possibility that more cases tainted by the scandal still might be uncovered.

So far 61 cases have been affected by the questionable use of informants and lack of evidence disclosed during trials, Sanders said. Many were homicide trials.

“This is the nation’s largest snitch scandal by far,” Sanders said. “So if the DOJ really wants to stand for justice, it doesn’t flee the scene of the crimes but rather demands that Orange County stakeholders create a meaningful review for the dozens of additional cases likely infected by those who wantonly committed prosecutorial law enforcement misconduct.”

More work needs to be done not only to prevent future cases, Sanders said, but also to bring justice to all past defendants whose cases were affected by the unlawful use of informants.

Kimberly Edds, spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said cases in which an informant was used continue to be reviewed.

“We are reexamining or in some cases have already reexamined all cases identified with [the D.A.’s office] in the course of the investigation that involved an in-custody informant” at the county sheriff’s department, she said.

Attorneys who believe a defendant was wrongfully convicted also can request that the case be reviewed by the D.A.’s office, she said.

Since the scandal, the D.A.’s office has created and required additional training for prosecutors, paralegals and investigators. The office also has improved how informant records are stored and retrieved, enhanced its conviction integrity review process to broaden the scope of cases that could be eligible to be reviewed for claims of innocence, and drafted a new policy governing confidential sources.

A spokesperson said the office also conducts annual audits with the county sheriff’s department for custodial informant files to make sure records on both ends are complying with policy.

A contract security guard was hospitalized Monday afternoon after he drove onto an airport taxiway and sped past planes, authorities said.

On Dec. 8 around 1:12 p.m., the guard assigned to a security checkpoint “drove a vehicle into an airport taxiway at a high rate of speed,” according to a statement from John Wayne Airport spokesperson AnnaSophia Servin.

Video shared with ABC7 showed a white sedan speeding down the taxiway near planes. The news outlet reported that an air traffic controller advised a Southwest plane to “hold position.”

“There’s a high-speed chase on the taxiway,” the controller said.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies detained the driver shortly thereafter and requested a medical assessment from the Orange County Fire Authority, the statement said.

“The individual was evaluated on scene and determined to be experiencing a possible medical emergency,” Servin said.

He was subsequently hospitalized and suspended from his job, according to the statement. Airport operations continued on schedule.

On Saturday morning, the coastal town of San Clemente became ground zero in the battle between California and the Trump administration over a preplanned live-fire exercise over the freeway during a military event at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.

A 17-mile stretch of Interstate 5 was periodically closed through Camp Pendleton. The northern side of the closure was just outside San Clemente’s city limits.

Midmorning on Saturday, the southbound 5 ground to a halt about half a mile ahead of the El Camino Real exit, the second-to-last exit before the closure.

The previous three freeway exits — Avenida Palizada, Avenida Pico and Avenida Vista Hermosa — all had flashing signs warning of the impending closure.

Motorists who were brave or foolish enough to venture beyond Avenida Palizada endured a minimum of 30 minutes trying to exit the freeway.

Some vehicles on the interstate illegally made nearly 90-degree turns on the freeway heading southbound to break through the bottleneck by exiting the vacant El Camino Real onramp for about 15 minutes. A California Highway Patrol officer eventually rode up the ramp and shut off access.

San Clemente City Councilmember Mark Enmeier said that the freeway closure came “completely out of the blue” and that he found out about it just as many residents did on Saturday morning when the Orange County Sheriff’s Department announced it on Instagram.

“There was no coordination with any local officials on this whatsoever,” Enmeier said. Or if there was, he said, “I was not informed of it.”

To Enmeier, the live-ammunition event was a “show of force on behalf of a few individuals” more than likely intentionally timed to this day of widespread protest. Plus, he said the freeway closure is a source of needless financial strain.

“Not only are we paying as a taxpayer for these shows of force, we’re also losing money,” Enmeier said. “I mean, this is a major arterial road, and there’s no other way down to San Diego from Orange County without taking an hour-and-a-half detour.”

At the SC Cafe in San Clemente, owner Joey Abi-Loutfi said: “I heard about the traffic from the news a day earlier and wasn’t exactly sure what to think. That’s the give-and-take of owning a restaurant right next to a freeway ramp.”

Abi-Loutfi said he’s not thrilled about the interstate shutdown, though, aside from slower-than-usual business due to the government’s show of force in firing off weapons.

“What a great use of funding,” he said with a sarcasm thicker than his restaurant’s chunky salsa.

By midafternoon, it appeared motorists had gotten word of the closure and conditions around San Clemente had eased.

By the 91 and 15 freeways — the inland alternatives to the 5 between Los Angeles and San Diego — were jammed.

Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized the White House for failing to coordinate or share safety information ahead of the Marine Corps 250th anniversary celebration featuring Vice President JD Vance.

California said it closed the 5 for safety reasons.

“It is not safe for people to drive on a major freeway at high speeds directly under LIVE MUNITIONS,” his office wrote on X. “White House not communicating, endangering the public, and then trying to blame the Governor for doing the right thing — keeping people out of harm’s way — yet another day living in Trump’s authoritarian America,” the post said.

Administration officials said the Pendleton event was safe and that a freeway closure was not needed.

“Gavin Newsom wants people to think this exercise is dangerous,” said William Martin, the communications director for Vance, in a statement.

Newsom’s office said Thursday it was told no live fire would go over the freeway, only to be informed Friday that the military event organizers asked the California Department of Transportation for a sign along the I-5 that read “Overhead fire in progress.”

Earlier Saturday morning, the state was told that live rounds were scheduled to be shot over the freeway around 1:30 p.m, prompting California Highway Patrol officials to recommend the freeway closure because of the potential safety risk and likelihood it would distract drivers.

Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators have arrested a Laguna Woods man who allegedly exposed himself to at least three women in the community, authorities said.

Robert Mario Perri, 66, was booked into Orange County Jail on Tuesday on suspicion of indecent exposure, according to a department statement.

The sheriff’s special victims detail received formal reports this month from three women detailing alleged instances of indecent exposure. However, several other incidents have also been reported to security personnel at the Laguna Woods retirement community, authorities said.

The three who submitted formal reports to the Sheriff’s Department were all older women, Lt. Matt Timmins confirmed to The Times on Thursday. The incidents occurred inside and outside their houses, he said.

The majority of the city of Laguna Woods consists of Laguna Woods Village, a private, gated retirement community.

Investigators alleged Perri followed victims to their homes in a white Ford Mustang convertible, and later returned to expose himself to them.

Perri does not have a prior criminal history, Timmins said.

Investigators believe there may be additional victims. Anyone who may have information can call the Sheriff’s Department special victims unit at (714) 647-7419 or (714) 647-7000. Tips can be reported anonymously to Orange County Crime Stoppers by phone, (855) 847-6227, or online.

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes blasted a state sanctuary law that bars local law enforcement from contacting immigration officials when an undocumented immigrant is held in county jail, but he said he won’t direct his deputies to enforce immigration laws.

“We have no desire to enforce immigration law — we never have, and we never will,” Barnes said during a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. “But we must have the ability to communicate and share threats and removal of criminal offenders who prey upon our community, often within the immigrant communities in which they reside.”

During the same meeting, Barnes called for the repeal of Senate Bill 54, a law introduced by then-state Senate President Kevin de León and approved by legislators in 2017. The law was drafted in part as a response to the first Trump administration’s policies to ramp up deportations and immigrant detentions.

Now, Trump has called for massive deportations during his second term, including targeting some visa holders and immigrants with no criminal history, prompting new scrutiny on the state law as local law enforcement agencies try to determine how, if at all, they will cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Trump’s latest push for deportations, and California’s defiance, puts local law enforcement officials in a precarious spot.

Under SB 54, local law enforcement officials are barred from spending money or resources on federal immigration enforcement. However, the law allows local enforcement officials to screen inmates, when asked by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, if they have been convicted of certain violent felonies and misdemeanors, such as assault, battery, child abuse or sexual abuse among other crimes.

If the inmates have not been convicted of such crimes, the law prohibits local law enforcement from notifying ICE when they will be released from custody.

In Orange County last year, county jail officials were asked by ICE officials to screen 633 inmates detained at the county jail. Of those inmates, 226 were referred over to ICE as being in the country illegally. The federal agency detained 186 of those inmates, according to state-mandated disclosures released Tuesday.

Some immigration rights advocates spoke out during the Tuesday meeting and criticized supervisors and the sheriff for continuing to do immigrant screenings in the jails, and urged county officials to stop cooperating with federal immigration officials.

Although deputies and local law enforcement are barred from routinely asking about immigration status when speaking to a suspect or witness, advocates said the cooperation of local law enforcement with immigration officials could undermine public trust and deter people from reaching out to police.

“It undermines public safety and it undermines our local economy,” said Carlos Perea, executive director of the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice.

Barnes stressed that deputies in the state’s third-largest county were focused on enforcing state and local laws, not immigration laws. But he also made it clear he supports greater cooperation with immigration officials when it comes to undocumented immigrants detained in the county jail, although he said his agency would continue to follow state law.

Speaking to supervisors Tuesday, Barnes criticized the so-called sanctuary law, and offered examples of immigrants who were arrested in Orange County, released and re-arrested for other crimes, including kidnapping, narcotics sales and child abuse.

“Those not picked up by ICE continue to victimize our community and consume law enforcement resources,” he said.

Of the 633 inmates whom ICE asked to be screened in Orange County, 407 of them did not meet the state’s criteria for notifying federal officials, Barnes said.

Notifying federal officials of those who do meet the criteria, however, is left to the discretion of law enforcement.

That option has also already caused confrontations between local officials who disagree as to how much, if any, law enforcement should be involved in immigration enforcement.

In February, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said his deputies would not be involved in immigration enforcement.

The statement, shared in a video posted on social media, was shared partly to address rumors that Riverside deputies had been involved in immigration raids, Bianco said.

Bianco, an outspoken supporter of President Trump, has criticized California’s sanctuary law.

But Bianco told Fox 11 LA he would be “working somehow around SB 54 with ICE.”

San Diego County supervisors adopted a policy in December that would stop jail staff from working with federal officials at all, regardless of the inmate’s previous convictions.

But San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez, who oversees the jails, pushed back against the Board of Supervisors, and has said she won’t comply with the county policy.

Martinez argued that, as an elected official and overseer of the jails, only she could set policies for the Sheriff’s Department, and vowed to continue to notify ICE when someone not authorized to be in the country was released from county jail.

In Orange County, supervisors seemed mostly in support of the sheriff’s policies.

Supervisor Don Wagner pointed out that the 226 inmates who were referred to ICE constituted a small part of the more than 48,000 bookings that occurred in the jail last year.

“The sheriff is to be saluted,” Wagner said, “not condemned for the very judicious use of his power that he’s outlined today.”

A worker was killed and another was injured Thursday in a construction accident at an Orange County high school, according to authorities.

Two workers were reported injured around 10:21 a.m. at a construction site at Villa Park High School, the Orange County Fire Authority wrote in a social media post. The accident occurred when the bleachers in the auditorium, which were being upgraded, collapsed, according to several news outlets.

After Orange County sheriff’s deputies and firefighter paramedics responded, one worker was hospitalized at a local trauma center and a second was pronounced dead at the scene, fire officials said.

No students or staff were involved or injured and there is no threat to the school, said authorities, who didn’t specify the circumstances of the accident. No further details were available.

The Orange Unified School District said in a social media post that counselors were available for staff and students.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health said it is investigating the incident, which could take up to six months. The agency can issue citations if health and safety violations are found.

Authorities are searching for a masked bandit who shot at a bank teller in Lake Forest before making off with $31,000.

The man entered a Chase Bank branch around noon Thursday, reached over the counter and fired a round in the direction of the teller’s feet, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The bullet did not strike the teller.

The suspect fled the bank, near the intersection of Portola and Bake parkways, before deputies arrived. Sheriff’s officials described him as being between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall with a thin build. He wore a camouflage print bucket hat, a black mask that covered his entire face, a yellow hooded sweatshirt, tan pants, gloves and was armed with a silver revolver, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies searched the surrounding neighborhood using a patrol helicopter and K-9 units, but could not find the man. Authorities collected several items from a trail near the bank that they say may be connected to the robbery. Officials did not specify what potential evidence was found.

Foothill Ranch Elementary School, located nearby, was temporarily placed on lockdown as deputies combed the area.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Department at (714) 647-7000 or leave an anonymous tip at (855) 847-6227.

The body of a 15-year-old swimmer who went missing off Huntington Beach last month has been found.

The body was spotted this week floating in the water near lifeguard tower 3, about two miles from where the teenager was last seen.

The swimmer, identified by friends and family as Aayan Randhawa, who would have been an incoming sophomore at Huntington Beach High School, disappeared on July 28 around 9 p.m. after he went into the water with a friend near lifeguard tower 11.

Agencies including the Coast Guard, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Port Police and California State Parks joined forces in a massive search operation that lasted more than 19 hours and spanned 105 square miles. Divers from the Huntington Beach Fire Department’s Marine Safety Division worked alongside a vessel with sonar scanning capabilities, while the Coast Guard deployed a cutter and response boats, and helicopters searched from above.

Authorities that day noted strong rip currents in the area and waves as high as 5 feet.

Even though the official search was suspended more than a week ago, local lifeguards and first responders continued the search until the body was discovered Monday.

“Despite search efforts being suspended by the United States Coast Guard, our teams continued utilizing available resources,” the city Fire Department said in a statement. “Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of the young swimmer during this incredibly difficult time.”

More than 100 friends, family and classmates gathered last week for a candlelight vigil at Huntington Beach Pier, where Aayan’s mother, Sana Randhawa, shared memories of her youngest child.

“He was a shining star of our family,” she told the Daily Pilot. “He was always happy, and he loved to come to the beach all the time. That was his favorite place.”

Orange County sheriff’s investigators are asking for the public’s help to find a 61-year-old man who authorities say was kidnapped by two men outside his home in Midway City last week.

Suspects have been arrested but investigators have yet to find the victim.

The kidnapping victim, Tony Lam, had arrived home shortly after midnight on March 15 after spending time at LV Restaurant & Lounge in Westminster and the 171 Sky Restaurant in Garden Grove when he was confronted by a masked man in his driveway, according to the sheriff’s department, which didn’t explain why his visits to the restaurants were crucial to finding him.

The man assaulted Lam, took him to a waiting car and drove off. A woman who was in the area of Hunter Lane and Madison Avenue when the kidnapping occurred called police, authorities said.

Authorities arrested two men — Nhan Nguyen, 49, and Phi Nguyen, 53 — on suspicion of aggravated kidnapping. Nhan Nguyen was taken into custody March 15 and Phi Nguyen was arrested Tuesday, said sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Gonzalez.

Both men have been charged with a felony count of kidnapping for ransom/extortion or to commit robbery or a sex crime. They have not yet entered a plea, court records show.

The two men have not told investigators where they can find Lam. Authorities have not revealed how they identified the two suspects or a possible motive in the case.

Lam is described as being 5 foot 7 inches tall and about 145 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans.

Anyone with information is being asked to contact Orange County Sheriff Dispatch at (714) 647-7000. Anonymous tips can be provided through Orange County Crime Stoppers at (855) TIP-OCCS.

One person was detained after a homemade firework exploded Tuesday afternoon at the Village at Tustin Legacy shopping center, according to authorities.

No one was injured when the firework went off, and there was no damage, said Lt. Matt Nunley, a spokesperson for the Tustin Police Department.

Officers responded to calls about a loud noise and smoke near the center just after 1 p.m. Once they arrived, they evacuated a Bank of America branch and two restaurants “for safety reasons, not knowing what it was,” Nunley said.

He said the firework went off next to a sidewalk, near an outdoor area with plants.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad responded to the scene as a precaution, Nunley said, but the incident appears to be isolated. He said a rumor that the FBI had gotten involved was not true.

The scene was cleared by about 3 p.m.

Tustin police officers detained one person who walked away from the area where the firework went off, witnesses said. Nunley said the person was being questioned, but it wasn’t immediately clear if an arrest would be made.