A new twist in O.C. Jail inquiry
In a move opposed by prosecutors and the media, acting Orange County Sheriff Jack Anderson is seeking to extend the seal on thousands of pages of testimony that resulted from the special grand jury investigation into the killing of an inmate at Theo Lacy Jail.
The motion itself was filed under seal this week by county lawyers on Anderson’s behalf, further shrouding the grand jury proceedings in secrecy and driving speculation that the move was designed to spare Anderson and his troops more turmoil and embarrassment in the death.
A closed courtroom hearing before Orange County Superior Court Judge James A. Stotler is scheduled for today. The hearing coincides with the expiration of the 10-day deadline under which testimony is normally unsealed in grand jury cases.
Lawyers for The Times and other news organizations planned to ask Stotler to immediately release the estimated 8,000 pages of testimony, in compliance with a state law that requires secret grand jury records to be made public after an indictment is returned and the panel is disbanded.
Kelli Sager, an attorney representing The Times, said the only exception is when a criminal defendant can show that release of the transcripts before trial would affect his or her ability to get a fair shake. In such a case, the court can keep some or all of the transcripts sealed, she said.
Normally, the only parties with standing in the release of the transcripts would be those with a stake in the criminal proceedings -- in this case, county prosecutors or the inmates charged in the killing, Sager said. But it is difficult to tell what the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is arguing because the motion is under seal. Sager said she had heard that jail security and personnel issues would be cited as grounds for keeping the transcripts from being immediately made public, in which case “I don’t see how they have standing.”
“But it’s hard to respond to a motion that’s filed under seal, which is the first problem,” Sager said. “None of this stuff should be filed under seal. The rules of the court require that it be done in public, and that’s one of the things we’ll be arguing for.”
Anderson issued a brief statement Thursday saying that his department had been advised by county counsel that it was inappropriate to comment on the motion, and that he looked forward to the release of the transcripts.
The debate is the latest legal twist in the October 2006 beating death of John Chamberlain. He died after about 20 fellow inmates at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange beat him for nearly half an hour while an on-duty deputy watched TV in the guard station. The inmates wrongly believed the 41-year-old Mission Viejo man had been charged with child molestation. In fact, he was accused of possessing child pornography.
This year, the county agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve a lawsuit filed by Chamberlain’s father, who alleged that deputies set up the beating and promised the attackers they would be rewarded by being allowed to watch a Major League Baseball playoff game.
Nine inmates were charged in the death after an exhaustive nine-month grand jury investigation convened by Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas. The panel found that no crimes were committed by sheriff’s deputies accused of instigating the assault and ignoring the victim’s cries for help. But it scolded the Sheriff’s Department for investigating the death rather than turning the case over to the district attorney, violating a 20-year-old policy “through conscious choice or negligent action.”
Assistant Sheriffs Jo Ann Galisky and Steve Bishop were forced out of their jobs as a result of the probe.
After being briefed by the grand jury, Anderson said he planned to initiate an internal review once the transcripts were released, to determine whether anyone should be disciplined or policies changed. He promised public transparency and won county approval for a plan to hire the executive director of Los Angeles County’s Office of Independent Review to monitor the probe.
Rackauckas declined to comment Thursday. He has previously said that he hoped the records would lead to a public debate about how jail deaths should be investigated, and promised to submit a detailed report to the county Board of Supervisors once the records were unsealed.
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hgreza@latimes.com
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Times staff writer Stuart Pfeifer contributed to this report.
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