man convicted of double murder in case that prompted D.A. He graduated from California State University, Fullerton, in 1981 with a bachelor of arts in communication.California O.C.
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. Carona and the use of unauthorized drugs by Olympian Carl Lewis. Simpson case, the downfall of Orange County Sheriff-turned felon Michael S.
Saavedra has covered the Los Angeles riots, the O.J. 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.
#ORANGE COUNTY CA DISTRICT ATTORNEY COURT FILED DOCUMENTS TRIAL#
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. Tony Saavedra is an investigative reporter specializing in legal affairs for the Orange County Register. Still, Murray kept quiet - not investigating, not disclosing, according to the commission.Īs for Wilkins, he recently received appellate court permission to sue the CHP, but not the prosecutors, for misconduct. The defense attorney already had notified Murray that he planned to argue that the collision was the driver’s fault because he was speeding. The commission said Murray failed in his duty to investigate the forgeries and turn over any exculpatory evidence to the defense team. The document said Murray told the CHP official the reports didn’t matter because Wilkins was a fleeing felon and eligible for murder charges, even though he was about 60 miles from the site of the stove theft and arguably no longer fleeing. He also told the reporter it was irrelevant, the commission said.Ī CHP assistant chief also approached Murray with concerns about the reports. Murray denied to Yellin, who is now a judge, that he knew anything about reports being falsified. He was even confronted by an Orange County Register reporter and a deputy district attorney, Larry Yellin, who had taken over the case. A CHP investigator told him officers there didn’t believe Wilkins should be prosecuted for murder. The commission’s charging document says Murray was notified several times during the Wilkins case by different parties that CHP traffic reports had been doctored. Over the years, Murray - a West Point graduate and formerly one of the brightest stars in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office - had been criticized by judges and appellate justices for his conduct in the Wilkins case. Murray was elected to the bench in June 2016. Murray was the main prosecutor on the case and was told of the fabrications, but he said the forgeries had no bearing on the murder case, according to the judicial commission.
The sergeant told co-workers he did so “because they did not feel they could obtain a murder conviction with the deputy sheriff being at fault for the crash,” the commission said. He shredded the original report, according to the commission’s charging document. That same sergeant then changed another traffic report that had concluded driving speed and not the stove caused three other collisions in the area. But a sergeant later had the report changed to support the prosecution’s argument that Wilkens was to blame. (Photo by Ken Steinhardt, Orange County Register/SCNG)Īn investigation by the California Highway Patrol initially concluded that Piquette’s driving - not the stove - was the primary cause of the accident. Cole Wilkins listens to victim impact statements being read in court during his sentencing in Santa Ana, CA on Friday, October 27, 2017.
By then, he had served 13 years and was released. Wilkins was convicted of murder and sentenced to 26 years to life, which ultimately was reduced by appellate courts to manslaughter and four years in prison. Piquette, 34, died after swerving into a cement truck allegedly to avoid the stove. in July 2006.Ī stove stolen from a Riverside County construction site had fallen from a pickup truck driven by defendant Cole Wilkins, landing on the 91 Freeway in Anaheim. 5 alleged that Superior Court Judge Michael Murray violated disclosure laws and used the falsified CHP reports to convict a former Long Beach man for causing the traffic death of Deputy David Piquette, who was driving to work about 5 a.m. The state Commission on Judicial Performance has launched disciplinary proceedings against an Orange County judge who failed as a prosecutor to disclose that police reports had been fabricated in a murder case involving the death of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.
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