Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...A third-striker sentenced to 79 years to life in prison for human trafficking, rape and other felonies has been granted a new trial because an Anaheim police detective showed racial bias on the witness stand.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard King last month overturned the 2017 conviction, ruling that the detective’s testimony — that “pimps are generally Black” — violated the state’s Racial Justice Act.
In a 51-page ruling, King said the only remedy for then-Lt. Craig Friesen’s statements was to throw out the conviction of defendant Chazz Jackson, 38, who is Black.
“Such testimony was completely unnecessary,” the judge said. “Instead it was a stereotype of racial character evidence presented to the jury, which was not needed in any way to prove guilt.”
Prosecutors said they will retry the case.
“The allegations in this case are horrific, and we believe in the strength of the evidence in this case,” said Kimberly Edds, spokesperson for the Orange County district attorney’s office. “We remain resolute in our pursuit of justice for the young women who were victimized.”
Anaheim police defended its former detective.
“We respect the court’s decision but respectfully disagree on the outcome and any suggestion of motivation in testimony,” said Sgt. Eric Anderson, in a written statement. “Our thoughts are with the victims, especially an 18-year-old who was brave enough to seek help amid the fear, abuse and tragedy of human trafficking and exploitation. Justice remains unaddressed for her and many others, with court proceedings overshadowing the larger focus of this case.”
Attorney Katherine Hallinan, representing Jackson, called the ruling “huge.”
“In this case, they were tying the likelihood of his guilt to his race,” Hallinan said. “His race was referred to over and over and over again.”
Jackson was convicted of human trafficking a group of women, raping two of them, pimping, attempting to persuade one witness not to cooperate with authorities and several other felonies. Some of the women were minors when they met Jackson.
Jackson was arrested after one of the victims called her mother while he was away. The mother called Anaheim police.
Appearing as an expert witness for the prosecution, Friesen, then head of the county’s human trafficking task force, testified: “So within the prostitution/pimping/human trafficking world, for the most part — and I hate to racially categorize, but for the most part — the people involved, the pimps, are generally Black.”
Under further questioning, he said, “I can tell you that the majority of the people that we arrested were of African-American descent.”
Attorney Hallinan also accused the late trial judge, Steven D. Bromberg, of racial bias in his introduction to jurors.
“I wonder when I said that this was a criminal case how many of you looked at counsel table, you see three gentlemen sitting at counsel table, you can’t see their faces, yet, you’re probably going to get a chance to meet them, and you probably figured, well, two of them are lawyers, and you see one gentleman, an African-American, he’s black,” Bromberg said. “You probably figured he’s the defendant. Yep, he’s the defendant. That’s Mr. Jackson, Chazz Jackson.”
Hallinan’s motion argued that Bromberg’s statement was discriminatory and tainted the jury.
“By its plain language, this statement explicitly equates Blackness with criminality, a racial stereotype, by asserting the jury pool can assume Mr. Jackson is the criminal defendant, and not a lawyer, based on Mr. Jackson’s race,” Hallinan wrote.
King disagreed, saying that when taken with further statements, Bromberg’s remarks were not a violation, but part of an admonishment to the jury that Jackson was innocent until proven guilty.
The Racial Justice Act, enacted in California in 2020, prohibits bias toward a defendant based on race, ethnicity or national origin. It doesn’t matter the degree of bias, only that it was shown to exist. The law has a lower legal standard for proving bias, which is “by a preponderance of evidence.”
It is the second time this year that an Orange County judge has declared a violation of the Racial Justice Act in a major case.
On June 12, Superior Court Judge Michael Cassidy reduced the potential sentence for a Chilean national accused of burglary after earlier finding that District Attorney Todd Spitzer showed racial bias in the case.
Cassidy ruled that Jorge Navarretecorvalan’s base sentence, if convicted, cannot be higher than the midterm of four years. Navarretecorvalan could face more time with enhancements.
Deputy Public Defender Rose Angulo said in court documents that Spitzer had used Navarretecorvalan as the poster child in the prosecutor’s fight against a visa waiver program that allows Chileans into the United States without a background check. Spitzer’s effort came as Chilean burglary crews were breaking into high-end homes nationwide.
Spitzer vowed to appeal Cassidy’s ruling “all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”