Court Orders Release of Racial Justice Records from OCDA

An Orange County Superior Court judge has ordered District Attorney Todd Spitzer to release hundreds of records related to prosecutorial policies, training, and internal decision-making under California’s Racial Justice Act—finding that the District Attorney’s Office unlawfully concealed public records for years. The ruling follows sustained litigation brought by Chicanxs Unidxs de Orange County, the ACLU Foundations of Northern and Southern California, and the Peace and Justice Law Center (PJLC).

This decision comes well after the District Attorney’s Office was forced to release core prosecutorial data—data that is already being used by public defenders to bring Racial Justice Act claims. But even after that disclosure, the DA continued to withhold a separate and critical set of records showing how prosecutors were trained, instructed, and guided in applying the law. Obtaining those materials required far more involved litigation and sustained attention from the court.

The court rejected the DA’s continued resistance, finding that the office had adopted a policy of refusing to extract or produce records from existing systems and asserting broad exemptions without adequate justification. Resolving these disputes required repeated court intervention, including in-camera review, underscoring the extent to which the DA fought to keep these records from public view.

In its ruling, the court ordered the disclosure of large categories of previously withheld records at a high level, including materials related to prosecutor training, internal guidance, and Racial Justice Act compliance. The judge made clear that public agencies cannot evade transparency obligations by fragmenting disclosures or by claiming that producing records is too burdensome when the law requires disclosure.

This outcome is especially significant because Racial Justice Act enforcement is county by county. Without access to both prosecutorial data and the internal records that explain how that data is generated and used, meaningful enforcement is impossible. Together, these disclosures place Orange County ahead of most jurisdictions in terms of transparency—and provide tools that simply do not exist elsewhere in California.

For PJLC, this ruling is not just about accountability for past misconduct. The data and records secured through this litigation will form the foundation of a new program area, focused on bringing Racial Justice Act motions and impact litigation demanding racial equity in prosecutions and sentencing. These materials make it possible to identify patterns, prove discrimination, and compel systemic change—exactly as the Legislature intended when it passed the Racial Justice Act.

As a result of this work, Orange County now has a level of prosecutorial transparency that did not exist before—and that few counties can match. PJLC and its partners will continue to analyze the released materials, support Racial Justice Act litigation, and build durable enforcement mechanisms to ensure that race plays no role in who is charged, how cases are prosecuted, or how people are sentenced.