The group, the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Orange County<\/a>, said in a statement that they honored Baytieh because he was the top volunteer for the group\u2019s high school mock trial competition. The statement said the group had \u201creceived positive feedback from coaches and students over whose trials [Baytieh] presided.\u201d<\/p>\n Some questioned whether the award was appropriate.<\/p>\n Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s disgusting,\u201d said Scott Sanders, the former public defender who uncovered the so-called \u201csnitch scandal,\u201d in which Baytieh was a major player<\/a>. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to have a group that\u2019s dedicated to constitutional rights, it is not a good look to make your \u2018Judge of the Year\u2019 a guy who has been found to violate constitutional rights.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s come to be known as the O.C. snitch scandal<\/a> refers to the systematic use of jailhouse informants to coax confessions from defendants without their lawyers present, and then hide that evidence from defendants \u2014 both of which are illegal. The misconduct took place under former District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. Spitzer, the current DA, has vowed to never let such misconduct happen again. But he has been left to deal with the fallout, including past wrongful convictions that continue to come to light.<\/p>\n Baytieh, who held a top position in Rackauckas\u2019s office, repeatedly denied the allegations of misconduct<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, a federal civil rights investigation ultimately concluded<\/a> that O.C. law enforcement \u201csystematically violated criminal defendants\u2019 right to counsel.”<\/p>\n Baytieh\u2019s prominent role in those violations has come into focus in recent years, most recently when the District Attorney\u2019s Office was forced to drop murder charges<\/a> in a decades-old case that Baytieh had initially prosecuted. The judge in that case concluded that Baytieh and his prosecution team had withheld evidence, and then lied on the stand about it in 2024. The judge called the prosecution\u2019s behavior “reprehensible.”<\/p>\n Orange County Asst. Public Defender Scott Sanders questions former prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh, now an O.C. Superior Court judge, about the use of jailhouse informants in a San Diego courtoom on June 10, 2024.<\/p>\n Previously, Baytieh had been fired by Spitzer after an internal investigation found Baytieh had illegally withheld evidence<\/a> in the same murder case. Baytieh would go on to win election to the O.C. Superior Court a few months later, with endorsements from dozens of current and former judges and law enforcement leaders.<\/p>\n LAist reached out to Baytieh for this story but has not received a response. Paul Meyer, a defense attorney who has represented Baytieh in recent years, declined to comment.<\/p>\n One-man protest from an unlikely critic<\/p>\n As high school students and their parents arrived at Calvary Church in Santa Ana last Thursday for the mock trial awards ceremony, Paul Wilson walked through the parking lot, handing out copies of a six-page letter<\/a>, penned by Sanders, the former public defender, highlighting Baytieh\u2019s unethical behavior and urging the Constitutional Rights Foundation not to honor the judge.<\/p>\n The event went on as planned.<\/p>\n What is the Constitutional Rights Foundation?<\/p>\n The Constitutional Rights Foundation, Orange County<\/a> is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that teaches teens about civics and the legal process. It runs moot court and mock trial competitions for middle- and high-schoolers.<\/p>\n The board of directors, judicial advisory board, and sponsors include dozens of prominent lawyers, law firms, and judges in Orange County.<\/p>\n Wilson and Sanders have become unlikely allies<\/a> in a quest to root out past misconduct by O.C. law enforcement and seek justice for defendants who didn’t get a fair trial. <\/p>\n More than a decade ago, Sanders and Wilson were on opposite sides of the courtroom. Sanders was defending Scott Dekraai, the man accused of killing Wilson\u2019s wife, Christy, and seven others in the county\u2019s worst mass shooting in modern history<\/a>, at a salon in Seal Beach.<\/p>\n Dekraai was arrested in what appeared to be a slam dunk legal case. But then, while preparing for trial, Sanders discovered a secret law enforcement program<\/a> that offered money and perks to jailed informants to surreptitiously question defendants, including Dekraai. Questioning a defendant without giving them the opportunity to have a lawyer present runs afoul of the Constitution. Prosecutors were also hiding evidence about informants from defendants, another constitutional violation.<\/p>\n As a result of Sanders\u2019s discovery, the Dekraai case dragged on for years. In a humiliating defeat, the DA\u2019s office was removed from prosecuting the case because of the misconduct. And in a blow to the victims\u2019 families, a judge ruled that the death penalty would be off the table.<\/p>\n An investigation <\/a>by the U.S. Department of Justice followed, during which Baytieh, then a top prosecutor, denied having any knowledge of the misconduct.<\/p>\n Paul Wilson hands copies of a letter detailing Judge Baytieh’s role in the snitch scandal to attendees of an awards ceremony sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Orange County. <\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy: Paul Wilson<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n LAist <\/p>\n )<\/p>\n After the ordeal, Wilson began crusading to reform O.C. law enforcement. \u201cWe haven\u2019t gotten the justice we deserve,\u201d Wilson said of himself and other victims\u2019 family members.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what led him to make copies of Sanders\u2019s denouncement of Baytieh\u2019s \u201cJudge of the Year\u201d award, and to bring them to the Constitutional Rights Foundation\u2019s celebratory event last week, he told LAist. <\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI felt a great need to go down and let some of these students that Baytieh has been mentoring \u2026 know who this guy was and what he’s all about and what he continues to be,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor years and years, those guys operated behind this shield that nobody was going to catch them,\u201d Wilson said of Baytieh and other former O.C. prosecutors and sheriff\u2019s deputies who were found by judges<\/a> and the U.S. Department of Justice<\/a> to have participated in the misconduct.<\/p>\n Wilson told LAist he passed out about 45 copies of Sanders\u2019s letter before someone from the Constitutional Rights Foundation asked him to leave.<\/p>\n Read the letter:<\/p>\n Pending justice<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776731469_716_.jpeg\")
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