"Big John" Kelly is District Attorney for Los Angeles County as of 2020. At some point in early 2020, he became aware that the murder case against Mickey Haller was going sideways. Although details are sketchy, it appears that Kelly was contacted by U.S. Attorney Wilson Corbett who told him that a deal would have to be made in order to protect an ongoing federal investigation. A meeting was held on the morning of February 27 in Kelly's conference room. In attendance were Haller, Judge Warfield, Maggie McPherson, Dana Berg, Matthew Scallan, Wilson Corbett, Dawn Ruth, Rick Aiello, and a couple of others. The outcome of the meeting was agreement that all the charges against Haller would be dropped and he would be given full exoneration. Although Kelly doesn't explicitly state his opinion of Haller's innocence, he readily agreed to a public exoneration with no "do overs", as well as no punishment for McPherson for helping defend him. Thus it can be concluded that he believed Haller was prosecuted in error by his office.
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