By Matt Ferner

LOS ANGELES — A deputy district attorney in Orange County who is connected to a controversial jailhouse informant program that allegedly violated the rights of defendants has resigned his position and plans to leave the state of California.

“I have given my 2 week [sic] notice to end my employment with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and am leaving the state on September 21 to begin employment in another state on October 4, 2015,” Erik Petersen says in a declaration and sworn affidavit signed on Sept. 4, obtained by The Huffington Post.

“Plane tickets have been purchased and moving expenses have been paid,” Petersen adds. 

The prosecutor’s departure comes after several criminal cases in Orange County unraveled in the wake of allegations that a jailhouse informant program violated inmates’ rights and that county prosecutors have been using evidence from that program to obstruct justice for years. 

Asked about Petersen’s reasons for ending his 13-year career as an Orange County prosecutor, Susan Schroeder, chief of staff for the OCDA office, said she could not comment on personnel matters.

Last year, Petersen, a gang prosecutor, was named in an explosive 506-page motion alleging that the OCDA office had been keeping a jailhouse snitch network secret. County prosecutors have used evidence from this network to bolster convictions in a number of cases.

The revelations from the motion, filed by Deputy Public Defender Scott Sanders, have caused multiple murder cases to fall apart, and some accused murderers have even gone free. Petersen is accused of using evidence obtained from the snitch program, some of which was allegedly procured illegally, and of withholding relevant evidence from defendants in criminal cases.

It’s common for law enforcement authorities to enlist informants to help strengthen a case — the tactic is perfectly legal, even when the informant receives something in exchange. But Sanders …read more

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