An Orange County sheriff’s sergeant and a retired sheriff’s lieutenant testified Monday that no one has spoken to them from their department or the District Attorney’s Office about allegations in an evidentiary hearing about illegal use of jailhouse informants in a Sunset Beach murder case.
The testimony by Orange County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Michael Padilla and retired Lt. Roger Guevara raises the issue of who pledged to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in a previously scheduled evidentiary hearing three years ago that led to a retrial of the defendant.
Padilla and Guevara took the stand Monday in the evidentiary hearing on the prosecution of Paul Gentile Smith, 64, who is charged with killing 29-year-old Robert Haugen in Sunset Beach on Oct. 24, 1988.
Smith was convicted in 2010 of murder with special circumstance allegations of torture and robbery, and he pleaded guilty to solicitation to kill or attack the lead investigator in the case, sheriff’s investigator Raymond Wert.
Three years ago, prosecutors capitulated on a motion for a new trial on the eve of a scheduled evidentiary hearing in the case granted by Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue. The hearing stemmed from allegations that prosecutors failed to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense attorneys.
Prosecutors also later dismissed charges related to the alleged plot by Smith to solicit an attack or murder of Wert.
Padilla and Guevara struggled at times to recall many events of their involvement with informants tied to Smith’s case in 2009-10. Their testimony followed on the heels of retired investigator Bill Beeman last week.
The testimony of Padilla and Beeman prompted Orange County Superior Court Judge Daniel B. Goldstein to tell the attorneys that he wanted more data on the records memorializing the movement of inmates in the jail, known as Tred records, as well as a log deputies in the special handling unit kept for a few years.
Smith’s attorney, Scott Sanders of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, is alleging much of the same misuse of informants in violation of the rights of inmates as he did in the case of Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in county history, which led to a recusal of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office as prosecutors and the dismissal of the death penalty as an option.
Dekraai, who pleaded guilty, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Sanders quizzed the sheriff’s officials on Monday about their connection to Smith, which the defense attorney argues violated his client’s rights because the defendant was charged and had an attorney at the time other inmates were questioning him for information on his case.
In 2021, Donahue granted an evidentiary hearing, but prosecutors said they would agree to a retrial of Smith because sheriff’s deputies said they would invoke their Fifth Amendment rights during the hearing.
Padilla said the special handling unit deputies were in charge of high-profile inmates who were more at risk of attack by cell mates and others. He said they acted as a “concierge for the jail… that’s the primary description of what special handling was.”
Padilla said he prepared for his testimony by reviewing the parts of Sanders’ motion in the case that referred to him, but said he was not familiar with a U.S. Department of Justice report in 2022 that was critical of the department’s handling of inmates in the informant scandal.
“I don’t recall ever hearing anything about Smith from my time in the jail until today,” Padilla said.
Padilla said he heard talk about the Justice Department investigation begun in 2016 amid the allegations in the Dekraai case.
“I heard from other people in the department — that’s how I know about it,” he said.
Padilla said he didn’t recall being subpoenaed in the Smith evidentiary hearing scheduled in 2021.
“I do not believe I told anybody I would not testify,” Padilla said.
Padilla said he didn’t realize at the time in 2009 that directing an inmate to solicit information from a fellow inmate when he was represented by defense counsel was a so-called Massiah violation. He added that the department had a loose definition of what was considered an informant.
“The department has come a long way with training and the definition of a confidential informant,” Padilla said. “I understand now there are sources of information I was involved in that it has been determined they were confidential informants.
“To me an informant or a confidential informant was a more professional term that was somebody signed up with the District Attorney’s Office. I don’t think I had any understanding of the law as far as it had to do with confidential informants… The definition of a confidential informant was broader than I think any of us knew at that time.”
As for the sheriff’s log, which documented how deputies and investigators handled informants, Padilla said, “It was my understanding at that time that it was an irrelevant document” in 2011 when it was shut down by Wert and Padilla left the unit.
“To me, it was a work log,” Padilla said. “It was keeping track of what we were doing or I was doing and to keep track of the day-to-day tasks assigned to special handling to me… When I left the unit in 2011 I did not think the value of that log was anything. I don’t think they were concerned about the log as well that I recall.”
Padilla, however, later said, “I think it had relevance. I think it was important… to me it had relevance.”
Padilla said he “used it to track movement, chores or tasks that we were doing in-house.”
If an informant mentioned something about another inmates case, he said he would “just pass it on the investigators” and not document it. He said he considered himself a “conduit of information.”
Sanders also questioned Padilla about a log regarding informant Jeffrey Platt, who worked on Operation Stormfront, which targeted white supremacist groups, and got involved in the Smith case.
Sanders has alleged that Platt violated Smith’s rights when he questioned Smith the jail dayroom.
Padilla wrote in the log on June 24, 2009, that Platt and another informant had information on Smith that they wanted to give Guevara. Padilla said he didn’t recall writing that, but did not dispute he did either.
“You were fine with three informants questioning a charged defendant about his crime?” Sanders asked Padilla. “You thought this was perfectly fine?”
Padilla replied, “correct.”
Padilla added, “truly, I didn’t know what their intent was. But it could be inferred that was their intent — to talk to your client pertaining to a crime… I know the sheriff’s department has made mistakes and the department has done its best to move forward. But at that time I didn’t see a problem or an issue with anything we did.”
As for the informant Sanders alleges Smith’s prosecutor turned to when Platt did not work out because of the apparent Massiah violation, Padilla did not have a good impression of him.
“I don’t know if he was an informant,” Padilla said of Arthur Palacios. “I know he was a rat… I just remember he was a rat, a problem inmate. I can’t visualize his face or person, but I remember he was one of those individuals who had aj difficult time coexisting with other human beings.”
Sanders asked him what the value would be to add a “rat” to the dayroom.
“Information is a commodity in the jail,” he said. “I could see where any opportunity among those types of sophisticated inmates to extract information regardless of what that is or whether I organize it or not.”
Padilla added, “I can’t prevent anyone from talking to somebody about their crime.”
Sanders said, “Yes, but you can also not facilitate it. In this case you made it happen?”
“Yes,” Padilla replied.
Padilla said his interactions with prolific snitch Oscar Moriel, who helped prosecutors in the takedown of Orange County Mexican Mafia chief Peter Ojeda, were more about security in the jail.
“From what I remember about Oscar Moriel is he had a lot of information about state prison and gang activity.. and the influence state prison gangs had, specifically the Meixcan Mafia had on Orange County jails,” Padilla said.
“The safety of the jail was paramount, and I think that’s what we were trying to discover.”
Under questioning from Senior Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt, Padilla said he couldn’t recall having any conversations with prosecutors about Smith or any talks with the lead prosecutor, Ebrahim Baytieh, who is now an Orange County Superior Court judge, on informants.
Padilla did, however, recall a meeting with former prosecutor Jim Mendelsohn about the use of an informant. Padilla couldn’t recall his name, but remembered the prosecutor’s nickname “The Colonel,” and that he “had a bald head.”
After Padilla stepped down from testimony, Goldsten told the attorneys, “It seems to me I want a little more data on the Tred system and the special handling log — who created it and when was it created and what was the purpose because I’m having a hard time believing now this is just something deputies entered data into for the purposes of inmate classification and documentation.
“I should say I don’t have a strong opinion, but that’s after reading a heck of a lot on this case and hearing the first two witnesses. Food for thought.”
Guevara, who retired in 2019, also said he did not read the report from federal prosecutors and was unaware of its findings.
Guevara worked with Platt on Operation Stormfront, he said. But Platt was officially an informant for federal investigators, he added.
Guevara also said he didn’t understand Massiah.
“I wasn’t up to speed on Massiah,” he said.
Guevara acknowledged knowing about a plan to wire a defendant’s jail cell and place Moriel next to him in disciplinary isolation to help with a Santa Ana police investigation.
Guevara said he recalled Baytieh was assigned to train sheriff’s investigators about the Massiah law. But he said he did not know Baytieh prosecuted Smith.
He was there when investigators questioned Smith’s girlfriend, Tina Smith, but couldn’t recall anything about it.
“I know Mr. Platt came to me and requested to be put together with Mr. Smith to gather information,” he said. “But I don’t remember the other two people. I remember Platt talking about it…. I just told Platt I was OK to talk to them.”
He added, “My only interest with Jeff Platt was what he was doing outside (of custody) for Stormfront,” Guevara said.
Guevara will continue testifying Tuesday. Baytieh is expected to testify in June when the evidentiary hearing will resume.