The Orange County District Attorney’s Office, a year after being booted from the trial of mass killer Scott Dekraai because of prosecutorial missteps, is facing removal from another murder case involving allegations of falsifying evidence.

A hearing is scheduled to begin today on whether local prosecutors knowingly used doctored reports from the California Highway Patrol to convict a man charged with murder in the 2006 traffic death of an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

Deputy Public Defender Sara Ross is asking that the District Attorney’s Office be removed from the case against Cole Wilkins, saying prosecutors have “lied, cheated and hidden exculpatory evidence for nearly 10 years” to obtain a conviction.

Prosecutors have called the accusations at turns “worthless,” “unproven” and “demonstrably false.”

In court papers, prosecutors say that if reports were altered – even with their knowledge – it is immaterial and does not absolve Wilkins of guilt for causing the death of the law enforcement officer.

“We do emphatically state that no prosecutor in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office engaged in altering of any police reports. A Los Angeles sheriff’s office deputy was murdered on his way to his work and the OCDA will continue to work to bring justice for his wife and children,” said Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff at the District Attorney’s Office.

Presiding over the hearing is Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals, the same judge who last year made the rare decision to remove the District Attorney’s Office from Dekraai’s penalty phase trial for killing eight people at a Seal Beach salon in 2011. Goethals ruled in the Dekraai case that District Attorney Tony Rackauckas could not guarantee a fair trial because of dishonesty by sheriff’s deputies and missteps by prosecutors.

In the new case, two prosecutors who recently have been elected judges – Michael Murray and Larry Yellin – will be called to answer questions about what they knew of a CHP report that allegedly was changed to bolster murder charges.

The charges trace back to just before 5 a.m. on July 7, 2006. Wilkins was on the 91, driving a truck loaded with appliances stolen from a home under construction about 62 miles away in Menifee. The cargo was not secured and the tailgate was down, according to court records.

At some point, a box containing a $1,500 stove fell from the truck and onto the traffic lanes of the highway. According to records, Wilkins initially was unaware that he had lost the stove until an angry motorist pulled him over miles away.

Several cars safely maneuvered around the bulky object before two other cars collided with vehicles while swerving to avoid the stove. One of the collisions proved fatal when popular Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy David Piquette swerved into a tractor-trailer carrying cement. One of the trailers overturned on top of Piquette’s unmarked Crown Victoria.

CHP investigator Michael Bernardin, in his report, concluded that Piquette was at fault for the collision because he was driving at an unsafe speed. CHP Officer John Heckenkemper arrived at the same conclusion – driver error – in the other crash, according to court reports.

But, records say, CHP administrators changed the two reports to reflect that the crashes were not the fault of the drivers. This designation supported prosecutors’ argument that Wilkins caused the fatal accident and was guilty of murder because he was in the commission of a felony.

Officers Bernardin and Heckenkemper, both retired, are expected to testify this week that they did not agree with the changes to the reports. In fact, Bernardin has said his report contained passages that he didn’t remember writing.

Retired CHP Chief Steven Beeuwsaert, in a sworn declaration, said that he notified prosecutor Murray of the changed reports and that the officers did not find Wilkins at fault. 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 Sgt. Joe 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.

In May 2008, Wilkins was found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury and sentenced to 26 years to life. His conviction was overturned by the California Supreme Court in 2013. Justices ruled the jury should have been informed of the potential that Wilkins was no longer in the process of committing a felony crime because he was more than 60 miles away.

Prosecutors are attempting to retry Wilkins on the murder charge.

Superior Court Judge Marc Kelly, who was presiding over the case until his transfer to another court, said in January that the District Attorney’s Office should have told the defense team about the altered reports.

“I think there were mistakes made. Whether you want to call it misconduct, discovery violations, whatever you want to call it,” Kelly said, “that material should have been turned over, because it was relevant.”

If the Wilkins case is taken by Goethals from the District Attorney’s Office, it could be handed to the state Attorney General’s Office.

Contact the writer: tsaavedra@scng.com