by Bob Walsh
A long-standing lack of oversight is about to bite Orange County on the ass big time, and will without a doubt result in dozens and maybe hundreds of criminals, some of them violent assholes, hitting the streets when they should be in the can.
It seems that the S.O. had a very, very casual attitude about booking evidence. They found that in as many of one third of the 98,000 cases studied the deputies lied about when or even if they booked evidence. Procedure requires that evidence is to be booked before the deputy goes home. Deputies ROUTINELY waited days or even weeks after the incident to book property. A second audit, done after the first audit showed major discrepancies, revealed that in a study of 450 cases NO evidence was booked in 121 of the cases where deputies had said they had in fact booked evidence.
In fairness to Sheriff Barnes it should be noted that he launched the investigation once he became aware of this wide-spread problem, apparently indulged in by more than half of his street deputies.
So far four deputies have been sacked, seven others disciplined and at least 17 current prosecutions shitcanned as a result of this mess. It is believed that as much as 30% of the evidence that was actually booked in was mishandled in some substantial way.
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