Orange County district attorney’s office can stay on case despite courthouse brawl

A judge on Friday refused a request to throw the Orange County district attorney’s office off an assault case, ruling against defense attorneys who said key witnesses had been intimidated by a courthouse brawl between an investigator working for the district attorney and a lawyer.

Judge Patrick Donahue ruled the prosecutor’s office could continue its case against Adrian Arellano Arroyo, who is accused of participating in an August 2014 brawl outside a Lake Forest nightclub.

Last week, a fight erupted in the hallway outside the judge’s 10th-floor courtroom in Santa Ana between Dillon Alley, an investigator handling a witness in the Arroyo case, and James Crawford, a lawyer assigned to advise the witness of her rights.

Accounts differ regarding who instigated the fight. Crawford’s attorney said Alley threw the first punch; the district attorney’s office said it was Crawford. Crawford was left bloodied, and said he intends to sue.

In a court motion, Arroyo’s attorneys argued the fight was part of “a pattern of intimidation and dissuasion� that had chilled formerly cooperative defense witnesses.

At a hearing Friday morning, Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew Lockhart argued that while “it is outrageous that people are fighting out in the hallway,� the confrontation did not represent outrageous government misconduct and had not deprived Arroyo of a fair trial.

The incident between Alley and Crawford remains under investigation. No charges have been filed.

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Twitter: @LATChrisGoffard

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