Interim Orange County Public Defender Sharon Petrosino has won the job on a permanent basis, signaling to some that the department’s investigation of the illegal use of jailhouse informants will continue full steam. The Board of Supervisors named Petrosino on Tuesday to permanently oversee the 185 defense lawyers who last year handled 77,661 cases on behalf of those who cannot afford private attorneys.

Petrosino now heads the offices of the public defender, alternate defender and associate defender. Petrosino has been with the department since 1985, joining the year after she passed the California bar exam. She went to Rutgers for her undergraduate studies and received her law degree from Southwestern School of Law. Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, who for three years has rocked the county’s justice system with evidence that police and prosecutors cultivated jailhouse informants to illegally approach inmates, was happy with the decision. “Sharon has been a fighter her whole career. I have complete faith we’re not going to relent one bit in protecting defendants’ rights to a fair trial,” Sanders said. County supervisors said during the search that they would not allow the position to become politicized and were looking for the best person they could find to run one of the largest law firms in the county.

The previous public defender, Frank Ospino, who left to become a family court judge, afforded Sanders the budget and the time to comb through dozens of cases, looking for evidence that jailhouse informants were misused and that evidence was withheld from defense attorneys. What Sanders found has unraveled six murder and attempted murder cases, with new trials being awarded, sentences reduced and charges dropped. State Attorney General Kamala Harris’ office is conducting an investigation into the informant controversy, at the request of Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. Tony Saavedra is an investigative reporter specializing in legal affairs for the Orange County Register. His work has been recognized by the National Headliner Club, the Associated Press Sports Editors, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association and the Orange County Press Club. His stories have led to the closure of a chain of badly-run group homes, the end of a state program that placed criminals in inappropriate public jobs and the creation of a civilian oversight office for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, among other things.

Program: New Leaf Program. Agency: Orange County Public Defender. Public Defender Orange County Location: Superior Court Office, 14 Civic Center Plaza. Prior to 1995 the Orange County Public Defender’s structure consisted of. This new arrangement obviates. Offices of the Public Defender participated in a.

Softwarecrackworks Zip File Password Remover. Saavedra has covered the Los Angeles riots, the O.J. Simpson case, the downfall of Orange County Sheriff-turned felon Michael S. Carona and the use of unauthorized drugs by Olympian Carl Lewis. Saavedra has worked as a journalist since 1979 and has held positions at several Southern California newspapers before arriving at the Orange County Register in 1990.

He graduated from California State University, Fullerton, in 1981 with a bachelor of arts in communication. Join the Conversation We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. Win Job Center. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions. If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears.

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