Why lack of resources matter?

By Allan Lee Dollison

A dangerous lack of resources has greatly imperiled the proper functioning of the Humboldt County DA's office

As I have stated numerous times on the campaign trail, the American Bar Association actually has published guidelines as to how many cases an attorney should handle when it comes to Criminal Law. Although these are advisory suggestions, and nothing prevents an attorney from handling more, they do so at the client's peril. In this case the clients of the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office are the People of this community. The recommendation is that when it comes to Felony cases (the most serious cases in the office), is that an attorney not handle more than 125 Felony cases a year. The office typically files about 1,850 cases a year.

Although the elected DA, the Asst DA, and an Environmental Prosecutor will handle a smattering of cases, the vast majority of all of those 1,850 cases are currently prosecuted by 4 Deputy DA's. Only one of them has ever taken a Murder case to Jury Trial Verdict. None of them have ever done a Sexual Violent Predator case. They are dedicated and hard-working, but too much is being asked of them. Much is required to get all of those cases ready for trial. The system depends upon plea bargains, but if you are overworked and almost 4 times is being expected of you from what the American Bar Assn suggests then problems will happen.

For example, Gary Lee Bullock (who is accused of killing Father Eric Freed) was charged in 2013 with Felony Possession of Cocaine (which is only a Felony). For some inexplicable reason he was allowed to plead to 2 Misdemeanors, and was thus not placed on Formal Probation. This played a direct role in him being released after only 8 hours after his New Year's Eve arrest. (Even considering that the law allows any suspect to be held for 48 hours not 8.) Unless the substance was proven not to be Cocaine, he should have plead guilty to a Felony Cocaine Possession.

Another troubling case, involved a Eureka Police Officer charged with a crime. You would think that before a DAs office charges a sworn law enforcement officer with a crime, all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed. Unfortunately that was not the case. The case meandered through the system. It approached a Jury Trial date only weeks away, and the DAs office announced that they were dismissing the case after experts had looked at the video evidence in the case and told the DAs office that the case could not be proven. They even apparently failed to tell the actual victim in the case that it was being dismissed. His attorney complained to the Court and the Judge said go talk to the DAs office. The person that was handling the case had not even been the person who filed the case. Nothing prevented them from having the experts look at the video evidence prior to the case. Presumably the opinions would have been the same, and the case NEVER would have been filed at all, and that officer would not have had his name dragged through the local mud.

Recently at a Law Enforcement forum a top contender in this campaign explained that they would personally review all of the case charging decisions of the attorneys in the office. That is just not possible. What is needed is a set of uniform principles and guidelines for how cases are to be charged, how they are to be litigated and what plea bargains are appropriate. Mostly though with more attorneys and investigators not serving as an auxiliary police force investigating cases, due to poor relations with other departments, then the product level will be improved, and justice will be served for all in this county. There are many more examples of these problems.

What is important is that any candidate for DA needs to level with the community, that unless you properly fund and resource the office and equip it with the best talent that you can find, but not overburden them once there, that you will achieve nothing towards the goal of fixing the office. At one time over a decade ago, the office had nearly 19 attorneys. There are times that number has recently dropped to 7. Most of the Courtrooms where those 4 felony deputies work, there are 2, and sometimes 3 Public Defenders working there. In addition there are private attorneys who handle cases in those departments as well. Literally 4 vs.1. Those are odds that make no sense, when the safety of the community is at stake. This county spends $150 million a year on Social Services. Yet spends just over $4 Million a year on the DAs office. It is a recipe for disaster and the end result is that crime has skyrocketed.

Crime in Eureka is 83% higher than the national average. We are in the top 2% of the most dangerous cities in America. I have talked to long-time residents, and even life time residents that are my age, who remember riding their bikes around town. Some of things that they got to do, the freedoms they got to enjoy, they would never do today. The reason is the absolute exploding crime problem. That crime has taken away the freedom from our citizens should be of great concern to all in this community.

Through this campaign, we can have this discussion to decide what level of protection. Unlike others in this race, I will not be beholden to the Board of Supervisors. I intend to battle with them for proper resource commitments to this office I seek to lead. If they deny me those resources, then I will use everything in my power to let the community know that they are playing with fire and are not protecting the community. Therefore my independence and commitment to my office will not be questioned.