D.A. Investigation Comes Full-Circle

PALM SPRINGS -California’s Attorney Generalis now scrutinizing perjury allegations against DA Investigator Candette Hammond.

Internal affairs documents reveal Candette Hammond’s supervisors at the DA’s Office believed she made up an entire interview while investigating a criminal case.

In one of those questionable cases, the State Attorney General’s office arrested former District Attorney Investigator Luis Bolanos in 2005 for domestic violence and perjury, based on reported evidence compiled by Candette Hammond. But, the case was so weak, it never went to trial.

The prosecutor on the case against Bolanos was Deputy Attorney General Michael Murphy from the San Diego office. Now, Murphy is handling the investigation against Candette Hammond. This case has come full circle.

Bolanos explains, “The history that Mr. Murphy and I have is clearly a conflict of interest for him, as the man who tried to prosecute me and the one that lost the appellate decision when the court gave me a finding of factual innocence.”

As first reported on KESQ.com, during the 2002 investigation of D.A. Investigator Dan Riter for shooting a man in Coachella, Deputy Attorney General Murphy refused to listen to evidence from Bolanos that would have cleared Riter of murder charges, according to Bolanos. Riter is now in prison.

Local defense attorney Shaffer Cormell handles many of the same types of cases Candette Hammond was involved in.

Cormell gives his legal advice to people Hammond investigated, “What they want to do is make sure they consult the attorney that represented them initially on their case, and see how she played into that investigation.”

Cormell adds, “One of the things when you have allegations of perjury, once you have these types of allegations, though, everything they’ve had their hands involved in, everything they have participated in, because they’re really an intimate part of the DA’s investigation in a domestic violence case. It’s important for them to have their attorney evaluate their case based upon this new information that’s coming out.”

Riverside Sheriff’s detectives worked the investigation against Candette Hammond these past few months. They handed it off to Palm Springs Police since that is where the alleged perjury happened. The State Attorney General’s office tells us it just received the investigation files Tuesday.

Sources close to the Sheriff’s Department investigation tell News Channel 3 there is enough in their findings for search and arrest warrants.

Last week, Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco’s office told us they have “no comment” on this case.