The Orange County Sheriff is now defending endemic lying by her staff in sworn testimony by saying that deputees did not know that they were required to tell the truth.

I guess that whole oath, where they swear to, “Tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” just wasn’t clear enough:

The Orange County (CA) District Attorney’s office remains in the news. It’s not often an entire prosecutors’ office gets booted off a high-profile murder case, but that’s what happens when misconduct occurs on a massive scale. An open-and-shut murder case with eight victims is now the DA’s perpetual nightmare. Judge Thomas Goethals kicked the agency to the curb after uncovering repeated discovery violations committed by prosecutors.

But the problems go back further than this case. The office has hidden the existence of a law enforcement database from defense lawyers (and judges) for a quarter century — a database holding all sorts of information about jailhouse snitches that may have made the difference in a number of cases.

………

Those in charge of the sheriff’s snitch program have been asked to testify in response to perjury allegations. They have chosen not to, with each sheriff’s office witness called pleading the Fifth. This chain of events has led to the most jaw-dropping law enforcement statement I have ever read, and that includes arguments made in support of setting toddlers on fire with carelessly-tossed flashbang grenades.

Sheriff Sandra Hutchens claims the veteran officers were unaware they were required to testify honestly during prior court appearances for the death penalty case marred by astonishing degrees of government cheating.

Officers, especially veteran ones, are aware they are required to testify honestly. This is why they’re sworn in before testimony. There’s a promise made at that point. Not testifying honestly is called “perjury,” as the officers are surely aware. High school students taking civics classes are aware of this. No one’s really unclear on the whole “tell the truth in court” thing.

The whole of Orange County law enforcement apparatus needs to be disbanded and taken over by outside agencies.