A former top Orange County prosecutor led a criminal conspiracy to withhold evidence in a murder trial, covering up the misdeed for more than a decade and impacting nearly 100 other cases, a defense attorney has alleged.
Former Senior Assistant District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh, now an elected Superior Court judge, also misled federal civil rights investigators about the concealed evidence and his use of a secret network of jailhouse informants, according to a 424-page motion filed Thursday, Sept. 7, by Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders.
Because of the hidden evidence and the refusal of sheriff’s deputies to testify, a Superior Court judge in 2021 dismissed the murder conviction of Paul Gentile Smith for killing a childhood friend. A new trial is pending.
Meanwhile, Baytieh was fired from his powerful job in the district attorney’s office in February 2022 after it became clear that the evidence — a recorded interview detailing how Baytieh and sheriff’s deputies allegedly violated Smith’s rights — was not properly disclosed to the defense.
Baytieh’s supporters have asserted that he was fired for another reason: blowing the whistle on District Attorney Todd Spitzer’s use of racially charged language in the office.
In the Smith case, Sanders alleges that 14 other pieces of evidence that would have been helpful to the defense also were withheld, many of which were kept secret by Baytieh from Department of Justice investigators. Some of that evidence was recently turned over by prosecutors to Sanders.
Sanders is now asking that the case against Smith be dropped completely, claiming he can never get a fair trial due to Baytieh’s alleged 14-year scheme to cover up the hidden evidence.
“This was unquestionably a criminal conspiracy. The prosecutor and his investigators hid evidence (and) provided the defense with intentionally deceptive interviews,” Sanders said in a statement. “The defendant should not just prevail in the motion….
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