File on jail killing will lose seal
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department on Monday lost its bid to extend the seal on thousands of pages of transcripts from a grand jury investigation into the October 2006 death of a jail inmate. The department was also denied the right to review the testimony before being released to the public.
Judge James A. Stotler found that the sheriff had no legal standing in the matter, noting that state law calls for grand jury transcripts to be unsealed unless a criminal defendant proves such records could prejudice the right to a fair trial.
The decision does not mean that the transcripts will be released immediately. First, copies will be given to the attorneys for the several inmates indicted in the death of John Chamberlain. If unopposed by those attorneys, the records could become public 10 days after that.
Stotler said he could decide today on the sheriff’s request to redact some information.
The hearing was opened to the public after a lawyer for The Times and Orange County Register argued for full access, unveiling some of the mystery that has shrouded the grand jury investigation and providing a good look at the combative relationship that developed between prosecutors and sheriff’s officials after Chamberlain died.
Chamberlain was killed 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.
A special grand jury convened by Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas reviewed, among other things, allegations that sheriff’s deputies instigated the assault and ignored the victim’s cries for help. The panel found that no crimes were committed by deputies. Nine inmates were ultimately charged in the death.
Court records made public Monday show that during the grand jury investigation, sheriff’s officials were asked to provide phone and email records of former Assistant Sheriffs Jo Ann Galisky and Steve Bishop. They were forced out of the department shortly after the grand jury probe was complete.
It took a contempt of court motion by prosecutors for the sheriff’s department to comply with two subpoenas seeking information including policies and procedures of the Theo Lacy jail, Chamberlain’s inmate file, an intra-department memo regarding television use and classification records of Chamberlain and six other inmates.
Eventually, the sheriff’s department agreed to provide the information under stipulations with prosecutors that preserved its right to be heard in court should an indictment be returned.
The stipulations and legal briefs associated with the dispute remained part of a secret file, separate from the grand jury case, until Stotler ordered it unsealed during the first part of Monday’s hearing.
Later, county lawyers representing the Sheriff’s Department argued that the seal on the transcripts should be extended so that they could review them to see if they contained any information that could jeopardize the safety of inmates, deputies or witnesses.
“There are hundreds of documents that contain highly confidential information,” said Senior Deputy County Counsel Laura D. Knapp.
During a break in the proceedings, Assistant Dist. Atty. Michael Lubinski said his office would follow rules governing confidentiality, and wouldn’t jeopardize the public’s safety.
“If there’s any implication that we’re putting lives at risk, we strongly disagree,” he said.
Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson has said his department does not oppose the transcripts’ release but simply wants to make sure nothing in them could create a public safety risk.
“Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson looks forward to the grand jury records being made public as quickly as possible, without endangering any lives or compromising anybody’s legal protection,” said sheriff’s spokesman John MacDonald.
Anderson has vowed that his department would conduct a thorough investigation and properly discipline any negligent deputies.
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stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com
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