California Supreme Court allows prosecutors who help make movies and books off cases to remain on the case

The Sacramento Bee reports:

The state’s high court ruled Monday that a Santa Barbara deputy district attorney who helped in the making of the movie “Alpha Dog” can stay on the real-life death penalty case on which the film is based.

In a similar ruling Monday, the court reinstated a Santa Barbara prosecutor who was taken off a case after she published a crime novel with some of the same features as the actual case.

In the “Alpha Dog” case, a lower appeals court had removed Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen after he turned over probation reports, police files and other sensitive materials to director Nick Cassavetes. “Alpha Dog,” a fictionalized account of the case that starred Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone and Justin Timberlake, was released last year.

You can access the Alpha Dog case here and the second, related case here.