Mike Murphy

Mike Murphy was the Deputy Attorney General for the California Attorney General's Office, San Diego office. He was prosecuting the case against Jimmy Hughes. Murphy advised John Powers that the DOJ would approve the arrest warrant for Jimmy Hughes, but they wanted Powers to arrest "all the suspects simultaneously."¹

On July 1, 2010, Murphy requested that the case against Jimmy Hughes be dismissed under Penal Code 1385. He told the court that the Attorney General's office had developed new information not known to law enforcement when the charges were filed, leading them to reassess and drop the case. He also cited a problem with the "procedural history" of the case, though he did not define it. Murphy stated, "We have lost confidence in our ability to proceed with the prosecution of this case."¹

Rachel Begley expressed her disbelief in Murphy's claim of new information, stating that the evidence she found was more than sufficient. She also questioned how California Attorney General's Office Jerry Brown could support the release of Hughes and criticized Murphy's handling of the case as "prosecutorial misconduct and a miscarriage of justice."¹