Imagine telling someone that both a trial court and an appellate court acknowledged their constitutional rights had been violated by the police, but their case cannot move forward. Now imagine that person is your client, and it’s your job to help them seek justice for the harm that’s done to them.

My name is Cat Ordoñez and I’m the policy director at Protect Ethical Prosecutors, or PEP, a nonprofit that’s fighting against prosecutorial misconduct. Before I joined PEP, I was a civil rights and employment attorney, litigating civil rights cases against law enforcement officers in federal court. I was frequently frustrated by the injustices caused by qualified immunity.

I was inspired to go into public policy work because of my frustrations with the existing legal system – if I could make the law that courts apply fairer, then I could help people vindicate their rights more effectively.

This is one of the many reasons why I was excited when PEP’s CEO, Iris Eytan, approached me about a job. To me, combatting prosecutors’ far-reaching liability shield is the next frontier of civil rights and government accountability. It’s also a bipartisan issue. Nearly everyone agrees that when the government overreaches and violates your rights, it should be held accountable.

Prosecutors have the power to ruin lives, and unfortunately, the misconduct they can commit is haunting. They can bring bogus charges to retaliate against a person, present evidence they know to be false to the court, hide DNA evidence they know helps prove the defendant’s innocence – even when that defendant is on death row for a crime they didn’t commit.

If I could have been sued for the work that I did as a plaintiff’s attorney, and a doctor can be sued, and a building contractor can be sued, why should the individuals who wield the power to put someone behind bars for life not be sued? When the stakes of misconduct are high, accountability is needed.

Protect Ethical Prosecutors is fighting back against prosecutorial misconduct. Join us to demand accountability and protect the integrity of our legal system.