Attorney urges group to rescind award to Orange County judge over informant scandal

A veteran Orange County criminal defense attorney is urging the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Orange County to rescind its Judge of the Year award to Orange County Superior Court Judge Ebrahim Baytieh, arguing the honor undermines constitutional protections amid alleged misconduct tied to a long-running jailhouse informant scandal.

In a six-page letter, attorney Scott Sanders asked the foundation's board to reconsider Baytieh's selection before its April 16 awards reception in Santa Ana, contending the recognition risks legitimizing conduct he says violated defendants' constitutional rights and cuts against the organization's stated mission.

"It is the decision to honor a man who has repeatedly demonstrated a dangerous and enduring commitment to violating the constitutional rights of the accused," Sanders wrote.

Sanders, a former Orange County public defender now in private practice, argues Baytieh, as a homicide prosecutor, led a team that concealed evidence involving jailhouse informants in violation of the Sixth Amendment, calling it the most expansive misconduct in a scandal spanning 61 cases.

The letter centers on a special circumstance murder trial in which defendant Paul Smith was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. While representing mass shooter Scott Dekraai, Sanders began investigating the case in 2016 and uncovered what has been described as a secret jailhouse informant program run by the Orange County District Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Department, a conclusion the U.S. Department of Justice later reached independently. People v. Smith, 09ZF0071 (O.C. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 31, 2009).

Sanders alleges three informants -- Arthur Palacios, Paul Martin, and Jeffrey Platt -- were directed to question Smith after he had been charged, violating Massiah v. United States, and that prosecutors concealed their roles from the defense.

A recorded Platt interview, surfaced when Justice Department lawyers deposed Baytieh for a day and a half in 2019, described all three men questioning Smith over several days before his alleged confession. Sanders wrote that prosecutors then faced a choice: disclose evidence of Platt and Martin's roles or suppress it and allow Palacios to testify with a sanitized account that Smith confessed on his own.

"They chose the latter," Sanders wrote.

In 2021, Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donohue overturned Smith's conviction and ordered a retrial after finding prosecutors concealed evidence and that a lead investigator refused to testify.

In 2024, Sanders filed a 409-page motion to dismiss for outrageous governmental conduct. After the case was transferred to San Diego, Judge Daniel Goldstein struck the special circumstance allegation, citing egregious prosecutorial misconduct involving illegal jailhouse informants. Baytieh could have been called as a witness if the case had gone to trial.

The defense ultimately uncovered 23 reports, recordings and other items tied to two undisclosed informants. In 2025, Goldstein struck the special circumstance finding, citing "reprehensible" conduct. Smith later pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and the murder charge was dismissed.

"It took us 10 years to expose that People v. Smith involved the most egregious misconduct in the largest informant scandal in United States history -- 23 items of evidence withheld," Sanders told the Daily Journal. "The judge found the prosecution committed "reprehensible" misconduct. And literally as soon as the case ends, the CRF names Baytieh its judge of the year. It's disgusting, an affront to the accused."

Veteran defense attorney Paul Meyer, who represents Baytieh, declined to comment.

Sanders said he has since joined a pro bono team examining alleged misconduct by Baytieh in another homicide case.

"I've wanted to work on this case for a decade -- ever since I uncovered information during the informant scandal," he said. "I've finally made my way to it. I'm taking it on against my own financial interest because I cannot stand the thought of him getting away with it."

Goldstein wrote in a 26-page order that Baytieh denied knowing a key inmate was an informant despite signing a warrant affidavit identifying him as such.

"This leaves only two possibilities: either Baytieh did not actually review the warrant affidavit - in direct contradiction to his own signature; or he knew and deliberately concealed his knowledge of Platt in these and other proceedings," Goldstein wrote. "In either situation, Baytieh, a sworn prosecutor, made a falsified statement to the court."

Sanders also challenged Baytieh's past public statements, denying intentional misconduct and warned the award would lend him unwarranted credibility.

"Considering I wrote a letter to more than 40 directors detailing jaw-dropping misconduct and was met with deafening silence, my conclusion is that too many within CRF talk a big game about their dedication to the Constitution but have little compassion for the indigent who pay the price when their rights are torn to shreds," he said.

The Constitutional Rights Foundation of Orange County said in a statement that the award is tied solely to Baytieh's volunteer work with its high school mock trial program, which involves more than 45 schools, more than 1,000 students and hundreds of volunteer attorneys and judicial officers. The organization said Baytieh was selected because he volunteered for every round of the competition this year, more than any other judge, and has volunteered annually since taking the bench. It added that coaches and students have provided positive feedback and that the recognition is based only on his work with the program.

Sanders urged the foundation to withdraw the award or instead recognize Goldstein.

"If CRF wants to make this right, I can tell them what would help: fund what is long overdue in Orange County -- a justice project that examines every one of Baytieh's 41 murder cases. They all need to be torn apart," Sanders said. "Take Baytieh's name off the plaque and replace it with the judge who bravely called out the misconduct: Judge Daniel Goldstein. Now that would be a fitting Judge of the Year when it comes to constitutional rights."