An Acton bank robbery suspect won’t be getting a mistrial, but his case is getting a new prosecutor after an L.A. County Superior Court official inadvertently published a judge’s sealed court order granting him financial assistance.
The court order, which was listed as “conditionally under seal” and then published into the court’s publicly accessible portal, contained confidential work product — to wit, the defense’s strategy, according to Jared Olen, a defense attorney who argued his client, Joseph Bennett, should have his case dismissed.
Bennett, a 61-year-old Palmdale resident, has been charged with three counts by the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office.
Two victims are listed in the criminal complaint for a June 21 allegation, one for an alleged second-degree robbery and a separate instance of attempted second-degree robbery, which are the first two counts.
On Nov. 12, Bennett allegedly demanded a woman hand over her purse, and when she refused, the 6-foot, 3-inch, 250-pound man punched her, according to a L.A. County Sheriff’s Department news release. The victim was able to get in her car and flee, according to officials.
Olen’s motion argued the breach of the judge’s order by a “deputy clerk who was working the counter scanned the files into the publicly available database immediately upon receipt” violated the outrageous government conduct doctrine and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
“She further stated that while the sealing orders were signed the same day, they did not make their way to the clerk’s office until several days later,” according to Olen’s sworn statement in his motion. “That means that the files were not sealed on the portal until some days after they were filed.”
The defense’s December request that Judge Scott Yang approved in January was financial support for experts that Olen stated were necessary to challenge the prosecution’s case, but also beyond his client’s means.
Olen said Friday in an interview that the court’s solution was intended to isolate the new prosecutor from any previous discussion of the information that was published.
The case’s court records online did not indicate a new prosecutor had been assigned, nor was a next hearing date available as of this story’s publication.
