OC sheriff's deputies who lied on reports testify that they didn't know it was illegal [View all]

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https://www.ocregister.com/2020/09/25/oc-sheriffs-deputies-who-lied-on-reports-testify-that-they-didnt-know-it-was-illegal/amp/

OC sheriff’s deputies who lied on reports testify that they didn’t know it was illegal

Tony Saavedra
PUBLISHED: September 25, 2020 at 6:18 p.m. | UPDATED: September 25, 2020 at 6:18 p.m.

Two fired Orange County sheriff’s deputies convicted of lying on their police reports testified recently before a grand jury that they didn’t know it was illegal to falsify the documents, transcripts show.

Joseph Anthony Atkinson Jr., 39, and Bryce Richmond Simpson, 31, had neglected to book evidence but falsified their reports to say they had. The once routine practice of sheriff’s deputies booking evidence by the end of their shifts, as required by department policy and state law, was ignored for years in hundreds of cases where evidence was booked late or not at all, an internal audit found.

Atkinson and Simpson, considered the worst offenders in the department’s “evidence scandal,” were allowed to plead guilty in June to a misdemeanor charge of willful omission to perform their official duty and were given one year informal probation, with no jail time, no community service and no fine.