Ross

I. INTRODUCTION

Christopher Ross, a former prosecutor with the Riverside County District Attorney’s office (DA’s Office), sued the County of Riverside (the County) for whistleblower retaliation and disability discrimination after the DA’s Office allegedly demoted him and refused to accommodate medical issues in response to Ross raising concerns that the DA’s Office was prosecuting an innocent man for murder. Ross alleged the executive management team in the DA’s Office retaliated and discriminated against him “at the specific direction,” and with the “express knowledge and consent” of, then–District Attorney Paul Zellerbach. During a deposition, the former district attorney who preceded Zellerbach, Rodric Pacheco, testified about a conversation he had with the current district attorney who succeeded Zellerbach, Mike Hestrin. Pacheco testified that he and Hestrin shared the view that Zellerbach was one of the most unethical attorneys they had encountered as prosecutors. According to Pacheco, Hestrin then revealed that an unidentified “County lawyer or lawyers” asked Hestrin to alter his anticipated testimony regarding his views of Zellerbach’s ethical character. Ross subpoenaed…