California Supreme Court Rules on Involvement of Prosecutors in High Profile Media Cases

The California Supreme Court has ruled that two prosecutors may remain involved with their high profile cases, even though each also became voluntarily involved with the media as a result of those cases. The Court found that Ron Zonen’s turnover of confidential documents in the “Alphadog” case did not warrant his removal from the murder case of Jesse James Hollywood, although Justice Kathryn Werdegar wrote that “We find his acknowledged actions in turning over his case files without so much as an attempt to screen them for confidential information highly inappropriate and disturbing.” Another case before the case, that of Santa Barbara County Deputy D.A. Joyce Dudley, also resulted in a win for the attorney. Ms. Dudley had written a novel that tracked some of the facts in a rape case she was trying. Said Justice Werdegar, “Because there was no meaningful factual connection between the two, publication of the book created little incentive for Dudley to handle the Haraguchi prosecution any differently than she otherwise would have.” The Court found that the defense could eliminate potentially biased jurors from the pool, thus diminishing the risk of harm created by exposure to Ms. Dudley’s book. Read more here, here in a prior post about Joyce Dudley, here about the Alphadog case, here for the Dudley opinion (Haraguchi v. Superior Court) and here for the Alphadog opinion (Hollywood v. Superior Court).