Los Angeles Criminal Attorney Blog

A latimes.com report from May 13, 2009 stated that Orange County district attorney Tony Rackauckas has accused the sheriff’s deputies involved in a taser incident with a handcuffed man of changing their accounts which “were not truthful.” In the concluding weeks of increasing tension between Orange County’s top law enforcement agencies, D.A. Rackauckas presented what he believes is clear evidence that deputies followed a code of silence in a case where the prosecutors dropped charges against a veteran deputy. In that case, Deputy Christopher Hibbs was accused of using excessive force. Hibbs was acquitted 11-1 and the charges were dropped.

Susan Kang Schroder stated that, “inconsistencies” in the accounts of Hibbs’ fellow co-workers put a stop in the case from succeeding, and she hinted to a “code of silence” between the deputies. These comments incited outrage from Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, who insisted on Schroeder’s immediate resignation.

Rackauckas said, “The deputy sheriffs in this case were not truthful.”

According to the D.A., not one deputy who was at the scene reported the use of a taser in their initial write-up reports. The deputies allegedly started making jokes back at the station saying, “What’s your name? Clack, clack.” This led to an investigation by the sheriff department which they took to the district attorney.

D.A. lawyers said that Bryan Thomas, a deputy at the scene, had told a grand jury that he felt that the use of the taser was not justified. Later in an internal review, Thomas changed his story and said he believed it was justified. During the criminal trial he testified for the defense. Deputy James Wicks also told the grand jury that he never witnessed Lares resist arrest or fight while handcuffed and did not believe Lares should have been shot with the taser while in the back of the seat of a police car.

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