The Orange County District Attorney’s Office, harshly criticized in a recent appellate court ruling for a systemic failure to protect defendants’ rights and under investigation by the state attorney general and the county grand jury, is facing a new legal challenge that could remove it from a second high-profile murder case in less than two years.

Over the past 3½ years, the controversy swirling around the office has centered on allegations that prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies illegally used jailhouse informants and withheld evidence. Now, the same judge who removed the District Attorney’s Office from a mass murder case is being asked to bar county prosecutors from the retrial of a man accused of causing an accident that killed a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy on the 91 in Anaheim.

Once again, the allegations involve withholding evidence, in this case information that a police report was altered in a way that bolstered the murder charge against convicted burglar Cole Wilkins.

The case started with a stolen stove and what was judged an accident by responding officers. It evolved to include an investigation into changed reports, allegedly hidden evidence and a debate about the lengths law enforcement will go to secure a conviction.

A hearing is underway before Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals on whether the District Attorney’s Office should be booted from the Wilkins case. During the first week of testimony, a retired CHP sergeant testified that his officers initially concluded that the deceased deputy was at fault for the accident that killed him. Former Sgt. Joe Morrison said he changed the original police report to conclude the deputy was not at fault, boosting a murder charge against Wilkins.

Morrison said he did so on his own, without being asked by prosecutors.

But the hearing hinges on whether prosecutors Larry Yellin and Michael Murray, both of whom were elected in June as Orange County Superior Court judges, knew of the changes and withheld them from the defense team during the 2008 trial.

The information might have helped Wilkins, then 29, avoid a felony murder conviction and, with it, a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Wilkins was awarded a new trial in 2013 because of other issues, and Deputy Public Defender Sara Ross is now trying to get the District Attorney’s Office pushed from the case.

If she wins, the trial could be assigned to state prosecutors. If not, then Wilkins could face the same local prosecutors who sent him to prison.

Prosecutors deny any wrongdoing, according to court documents. The District Attorney’s Office did not respond to recent requests for comment, but the chief of staff previously spoke about prosecutors’ intentions.

“A Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy was murdered on his way to his work, and the OCDA will continue to work to bring justice for his wife and children,” Susan Kang Schroeder said.

MURDER BY STOVE

In the predawn of July 7, 2006, Wilkins stole a stove, a refrigerator, a dishwasher and other appliances from a home construction site in Menifee, in Riverside County, according to court records.

Before 5 a.m., the $1,500 stove, unsecured and still in a box, fell from Wilkins’ truck and into the traffic lanes of the 91 in Anaheim. According to court records, Wilkins didn’t realize the stove was gone until an angry motorist pulled him over a few miles away.

Several vehicles drove around the stove without incident, but at least two did not. In one of those accidents, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy David Piquette swerved his department-issued Crown Victoria into a tractor-trailer carrying cement. A trailer overturned on the vehicle, crushing and killing Piquette.

Piquette was a popular police trainer who worked out of the sheriff’s academy in Whittier. He came from a police family, with his father-in-law also in law enforcement and, later, his brother. Piquette was a father and an active member of his community. His death drew media attention; his funeral was attended by a sea of uniformed officers as well as then-Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.

The stove eventually was tracked to Wilkins, who had a juvenile record of burglary, rape and kidnapping. He was charged with felony murder.

At that point, Wilkins’ case could have gone a couple of ways. He could have been charged with some form of manslaughter.

If he was convicted of felony murder – meaning he was committing a felony at the time of the incident – then Wilkins could have faced a much longer sentence.

His fate seemed to hinge, at least partially, on whether the CHP determined that the stove or Piquette was the primary cause of the accident.

After investigating the accident at the scene, CHP officer Michael Bernardin concluded that Piquette was at fault for the collision. Court records indicate he believed Piquette was driving too fast to safely avoid the stove. Bernardin testified last week that his opinion was based on the fact the stove was stationary. In another accident connected to the stolen stove, CHP Officer John Heckenkemper arrived at the same conclusion – driver error – according to court reports.

But Wilkins’ lawyers at the time never saw those reports.

A NEW CASE

The Orange County D.A.’s office has been accused of cheating to get convictions for much of the past three years. An evaluation by a panel of attorneys hand-picked by District Attorney Tony Rackauckas found in December 2015 that some members of his office have a “win at all costs mentality” and the agency was run like a “ship without a rudder.”

The Wilkins case comes as the pressure is mounting on the District Attorney’s Office and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

On one front, a half-dozen murder or attempted murder cases recently have been overturned or renegotiated because judges agreed with defense lawyers who said prosecutors misused jailhouse informants, withheld evidence, or both. The Wilkins case could add to that total.

On another front, the basic allegations from lawyer Ross touch familiar ground.

Last year, the same jurist hearing the Wilkins case, Goethals, ruled that local prosecutors could not be trusted to provide a fair hearing in the penalty phase for admitted mass murderer Scott Dekraai. That ruling removed the D.A.’s Office from the case and made it the responsibility of the state attorney general, who appealed Goethals’ decision.

On Nov. 22, a California appellate court turned away that appeal, calling its key argument “nonsense.”

The justices’ 53-page, 3-0 opinion described a “steady stream of evidence regarding improper conduct by the prosecution team.” The judges said the patterns of misbehavior – illegally using jailhouse informants and purposely withholding evidence from defense teams – were “systemic.”

It’s unclear if the state will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

DOCTORED REPORTS

In the Wilkins investigation, CHP administrator Morrison changed one report and had the other modified to reflect that the crashes were not caused by the drivers.

The changed reports – with a box checked off to indicate something other than driver error caused the accidents – were the ones given to Orange County prosecutors at the time of Wilkins’ trial.

Morrison testified Wednesday he made the changes because he was familiar with the area and the grade of the roadway and felt the stove would have been hard to see in the morning darkness.

“It was the right thing to do,” testified Morrison, later adding, “A lot of officers will find people at fault when they should have looked further into it.”

Morrison testified that prosecutors did not ask or tell him to change the reports.

He also testified that he destroyed the original report prepared by Heckenkemper, the CHP officer, because it was being replaced by his report.

Ex-officer Bernardin testified that he was told to change his report on Piquette. Though he didn’t agree with the new finding, he didn’t mind changing it, he testified.

“I didn’t care, I didn’t argue with them,” Bernardin said.

The former officer was a colorful witness, posting on his Facebook page that the hearing was “a joke.” As if to prove it, Bernardin posted a selfie taken while he was seated on the witness stand during a break.

Bernardin’s levity belied the importance of the hearing.

Heckenkemper is expected to testify this week.

Retired CHP Chief Steven Beeuwsaert, in a sworn declaration, said that he notified prosecutor Murray of the changed reports. Beeuwsaert said he also notified CHP internal affairs of the doctored reports.

“It is normal to make minor changes to the officers’ reports, such as typos, grammatical errors and formatting fixes,” Beeuwsaert said in his declaration. “However, any changes to the cause of the collision, measurements, location, diagram, statements, etc., would be returned to the investigating officer for possible correction.”

Heckenkemper, in a defense interview, said he went on vacation after filing his report and received a phone call from Morrison stating his report was being changed. He said he was told this was being done to help the murder prosecution against the suspect who stole the stove.

No information about the changed reports was relayed to the defense for Wilkins’ trial.

Prosecutors have said they didn’t know about the changed reports and, even if they did, the information was immaterial and didn’t absolve Wilkins of killing the deputy.

Immaterial or not, did the defense have the right to receive the original reports? And can the Orange County district attorney be trusted to ensure a fair trial for Wilkins?

That is the question for Goethals. The answer could intensify questions about the conduct of Rackauckas’ office.

Contact the writer: tsaavedra@scng.com