Oakland Turns Over Ghost Ship Investigation Report To DA After Weeks Of Delays

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Publish Date:
March 20, 2017
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East Bay Times
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Summary

After weeks of failing to provide Alameda County prosecutors access to a draft investigative report on the deadly Ghost Ship fire, city officials delivered a final version of the report to the criminal investigation team Saturday, hours after this news organization reported on the delays.

The report, which prosecutors have been asking for since last month, was sent by email, Oakland spokesman Harry Hamilton said. Early Monday, the city said it was a draft report, but by late Monday both sides confirmed the final report had been sent.

Stanford law professor Robert Weisberg, who runs the school’s criminal law clinic, said he could understand the DA’s concerns about not getting the draft report in a timely manner. Prosecutors risk violating a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brady v. Maryland, if they don’t turn over all investigative materials to the defense before trial.

Prosecutors have lost some cases when all evidence was not turned over to the defense, Weisberg said, even if the investigating agency withheld evidence from the prosecutor.

She could choose the grand jury route, Weisberg said, “because of its investigative powers.” A grand jury can issue its own subpoenas.

And the setting, where people testify in secret, “can scare people. It’s ominous. People can get paranoid over who else is testifying,” Weisberg said.

But, he said, no matter which way O’Malley goes, “nothing I have seen precludes the making of a hard murder case.”

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