If “Mean Justice,” was a novel, parts of it would seem unbelievable.

But Edward Humes, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of four books has carefully documented this tale of betrayal and abuse of power by police and prosecutors in Bakersfield to create a book that is simultaneously fascinating and frightening.

“Mean Justice,” on the surface, is about a man whose wife walks out the door and disappears. Instead of sympathy, he finds himself the suspect in a murder investigation with police and prosecutorial misconduct almost laughably unfair. But the unfairness shown by the author sets the stage for the larger story, about how Kern County has been in the grips of an out-of-control – and mean-spirited – judicial system for years.

Humes devotes a significant chapter to the Bakersfield “witch trials” of the 1980s – not real or imagined witches, of course – investigations into supposed child abuse cases in which the suspects were accused of sexual misconduct and even conducting Satanic rituals. The hysteria surrounding the cases – at the same time as the McMartin pre-school case was going on in Los Angeles – showed a community completely in the grips of fear, not of child abuse, but of simply being accused.

“Mean Justice,” also offers a wealth of statistical and other information in several appendices, such as one that tracks the number of people hauled through the legal system only to find convictions overturned on appeal, largely because of blunders committed by judges and prosecutors.

The book is also carefully footnoted, with endnotes for every chapter that make for interesting background reading.

It’s hard to read this book without wondering about other court systems in California – and without worrying about how any person accused of any crime in the state is being treated.

“Mean Justice,” is highly recommended reading and is available on the browsing shelf of the University library.