defense counsel

Meghan Blanco, a former federal prosecutor in L.A. who serves as defense counsel to one of the protesters who is facing charges, said the cases are faltering in part because of unreliable information provided by immigration agents claiming to be victims.

Although homicide detectives said they turned in their notes on the case to the prosecutor and defense counsel, neither the district attorney’s file nor that of the Sheriff’s Department contained proof the files were shared.

The disputed factual issue is not some trifling misunderstanding between prosecutors and defense counsel over minor terms of a plea agreement, nor is it about a legitimate policy disagreement within layers of the Justice Department hierarchy.

For years, deputies maintained and concealed records that tracked and managed the jailhouse informants, and prosecutors “failed to seek out and disclose exculpatory information regarding custodial informants to defense counsel,” according to a statement from the Department of Justice when they announced their findings.

Gennaco and his former office have also faced some criticism for not doing enough to uncover patterns of abuse that exploded into the public eye when the FBI launched a probe that eventually ended in the conviction of former Sheriff Lee Baca, for whom Hochman once served as defense counsel.