This is one of the most appalling cases ever
OCWeekly:
This is wrong on so many levels it boggles the mind. What they did was the judicial equivalent of kidnapping. That they would argue that they did not know it was wrong compounds the misconduct.
The appeals court justices were totally nonplussed by the argument for the employees:
Judges Reject Orange County's Claim That Social Workers Didn't Know Lying In Court Was WrongThere is more.
Using taxpayer funds, government officials in Orange County have spent the last 16 years arguing the most absurd legal proposition in the entire nation: How could social workers have known it was wrong to lie, falsify records and hide exculpatory evidence in 2000 so that a judge would forcibly take two young daughters from their mother for six-and-a-half years?
From the you-can't-make-up-this-crap file, county officials are paying Lynberg & Watkins, a private Southern California law firm specializing in defending cops in excessive force lawsuits, untold sums to claim the social workers couldn't have "clearly" known that dishonesty wasn't acceptable in court and, as a back up, even if they did know, they should enjoy immunity for their misdeeds because they were government employees.
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This is wrong on so many levels it boggles the mind. What they did was the judicial equivalent of kidnapping. That they would argue that they did not know it was wrong compounds the misconduct.
The appeals court justices were totally nonplussed by the argument for the employees:
...Hey, dude, it's California.
Trott: How in the world could a person in the shoes of your clients possibly believe that it was appropriate to use perjury and false evidence in order to impair somebody's liberty interest in the care, custody and control of that person's children? How could they possibly not be on notice that you can't do this?
Lin: I understand.
Trott: How could that possibly be?
Lin: I understand the argument that it seems to be common sense in our ethical, moral . . .
Trott: It's more than common sense. It's statutes that prohibit perjury and submission of false evidence in court cases.
Lin: State statutes.
Trott: Are you telling me that a person in your client's shoes couldn't understand you can't commit perjury in a court proceeding in order to take somebody's children away?
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