Excellent work, David..

David: I hope this article will cause people to come forward that have been afraid to tell the stories about injustices that have happened to them. When people start to understand why the DA's office is so into convictions, then maybe they will start asking questions. Remember it was Reisig that bragged about the number of convictions (20,000) in three years.

I also hope that the tax payers will ask for an accounting. It is terrible to think that tax payers give money to a justice system that cares more about convictions and fulfilling grant requirments to get more money than they do about justice.

I hope the county supervisors, the grand jury, the federal civil rights commission or the attorney general's office looks into this--especially because Reisig is running unopposed.

"I hope the county supervisors, the grand jury, the federal civil rights commission or the attorney general's office looks into this--especially because Reisig is running unopposed."

There is nothing (I know of) stopping the supervisors from looking into the actions of the DA. However, because DA's (and all other department heads, such as the sheriff, clerk/recorder, assessor, etc.) are elected independently, the supervisors have no actual authority over them.

Were it up to me, we the people would elect the full-time board of supervisors and the board would be responsible for hiring and supervising all of the department heads, including the DA and the Sheriff.

As our system now works, no one really oversees most department heads, because the public pays so little attention once an election is over. The DA, at least, gets media attention; and that serves as some kind of oversight.

But how much attention is anyone really paying to how good of a job, for example, Howard Newens is doing? If you passed Howard Newens on the street, would you recognize him*?

We did electe Howard, afterall. I would guess if you asked 10,000 random people who live in Yolo County who our "Auditor-Controller and Treasurer-Tax Collector" is, maybe 3 could blurt out, "Howard Newens." All three of those people likely live near him in West Davis.

*David Greenwald, would you recognize Howard Newens if you stood in line next to him at the IGA Market?

The ever popular saying: "Follow the money" when you want to get to the heart of the matter continues to be proven true! Money, a powerful motivator, has caused persons to act in ways they never thought they could. This is a very serious and troubling situation and effects each and every one of us whether we want to admit it or not. If there is one person who is in a prision that is innocent of the crime they were convicted, it is one to many! I have heard people try to justify that in the "big picture of things" having a few innocent persons in prision is acceptable, they view them as "causalties of war" in the fight against crime. I would like you to ask yourself, "What if I am that innocent person in prision, would I accept this misguided idea?" Of couse you would not, so why should any of us?
This is how the DA's, Judges, and police try to justify taking weak cases, even ones where the police have done no investigation, to trial. All for the purpose of helping their budget, keep jobs and allow their families to maintain a certian life style! What about the VICTIMS and the VICTIMS FAMILIES, the victims that the DA's office creates? Those innocent persons are sitting in prision with no hope, their families have suffered and continue to suffer as they fight this "beast". Remeber that we, the families of the victims that Yolo County created, are not only fighting for ourselves and our loved ones but we are fighting for YOU as well.
David, I would like to thank you for this excellent article and having the courage to report and expose this very troubling truth. I do hope that other media, nationwide, will pick up your story and will demand the Federal Government to look into this matter.

Rich Rifkin: Even if the county supervisors don't oversee the DA and the sheriff, what do we need to do to have them look at this closely?

The county supervisors certainly oversee the budget and understand things from that angle. As a county supervisor, I would be worried if I was approving grant money that may be causing injustices to happen to the citizens of my county.

I concur with Davisite2: “Excellent work, David”

A criminal legal system’s budget that is significantly predicated on the amount of prosecutions and convictions attained is dangerous. Seeking truth and justice should be the sole goal of a prosecutor and it should not be tied to how much money they receive to do their job via the amount of prosecutions they make or convictions they attain.

By honestly seeking the truth the district attorney’s office should include both dismissals and prosecutions on an equal weight basis and should be rewarded for doing a good job at both. Too often in our society people think justice is only served by convictions. Instead justice can be served both by prosecutions and dismissals as well as convictions and acquittals.

I have served on two criminal juries in Yolo County. One jury convicted in 1998 and one acquitted in 2008. Justice in my opinion was ultimately served in both cases.

But in the case that ended in acquittal the prosecution troubled the jury to begin with. When we began jury deliberations most everyone on the jury could not understand why the district attorney’s office was prosecuting this case at all. The evidence was not there for a conviction. During the trial it became clear to the jury that the charges against the three defendants were trumped up and that the original two West Sacramento police officers involved had engaged in serious misconduct against law abiding citizens only to then arrest those individuals on false charges. Although we acquitted the defendants of all charges and justice was ultimately served it was troubling to see police officers not telling the truth, physically harming innocent individuals by beating and tasering and then using their power of arrest against them.

Equally troubling was that the district attorney’s office prosecuted this case causing the defendants to fear possible conviction and imprisonment for several years while waiting for trial. Was complete justice really served the day of their acquittal? No it was not. I would say that partial justice was served that day as the defendants had been abused by a legal system that prosecuted them when the charges should have been dismissed long before going to a trial. Innocent people were prosecuted when they should not have been and the district attorney’s office should have seen to a dismissal long before going to trial.

Who am I?

Just as said before, follow the money. I hope a federal investigation is made so that our county can be free of all of this corruption and mistrust. David you did a great job! I hope someone runs against this district attorney.

I hope people attend the upcoming protests.

David,

I commend you on your recent exposition concerning Yolo County's "Cash for Convictions" consortium, which functions as an auxiliary-funding-mechanism predicated on the aggregate number of arrests and convictions obtained.

Raising the specter of impropriety and embedded bias associated with this spurious crime suppression methodology is a public service of the highest order.

The most egregious threat and potential compromise to public safety remains at the disposal of those elected and appointed authorities vested with the plenary power to enforce the rule of law.

Whatever is FUNDED is forever FOUND.

"Who are you?"

An elected official in Yolo County who is not supervised by the "supervisors."

You can run a DA's office like a business if it's yours thru the electoral process. But ultimately the People's business of meting out justice impartially is not going to be served when a primary motivation of any DA's office is keep their place at the $ trough by an over-dependence on grants with specialized terms constituting quotas.

This was an excellent article David. We have the same situation in Sacramento. Instead of serving the cause of justice and public protection, the DA's office is courting the federal dollar. Most of those dollars seem to come from Homeland Security, which is more than a little alarming. More pigs than ever feeding at the public trough.

Hello David,

Do you know if some percentage of the grant money is allocated specifically for investigation, as contrasted with prosecution? Of course many crimes are not well-investigated due to lack of funding; it makes sense that if there is more $ for investigation, a higher % of crimes could be solved, and more convictions.

I agree that if the limiting factor in gathering evidence and getting convictions for the actual perps is the $ available for investigations, then it does seem to be a tricky thing to increase funding only for prosecution, but not investigation.

But if there are many well-investigated crimes on the docket, but insufficient funds to thoroughly prosecute all of them, then it does make sense to increase funding for prosecution activities alone.

Can anyone clarify the status of investigation funding as contrasted with prosecution funding for Yolo?

Bill Ritter,
Very interesting case you juried in West Sac. Sounds like blatant police misconduct. I would be interested to learn who the Yolo Co. District Attorney was who made the decision to prosecute these individuals. Do you know? The great value of this blog is it's ability to expose these issues to the voters. One or two cases of alleged prosecutorial misconduct can be attributed to bias on the part of a blogger. But each one is another nail in the coffin of the abuse of power. I have a few nails of my own to drive when the subject comes around! I wonder how many more nails it takes to get somebody voted out of office. r.b.

The plot grows thicker. It just gets more and more complicated. How can this be explained/presented to the "average" citizens in this county?

Mr. Bockrath,

I do not know who made the decision to prosecute the case. Jeff Reisig was the Yolo County District Attorney when the trial was conducted. I got the impression during the trial that the deputy district attorney who was the actual trial prosecutor did not make the decision.

The prosecuting deputy district attorney actually did a good job at trial. He was professional and earnest in his presentations. But, he was handicapped by the fact that the evidence was not in the prosecution’s favor. His whole summation essentially became a plea that the police must be believed, period. But the defense attorneys had done a very good job of demonstrating from the evidence and from the testimony of all the other witnesses including the defendants and finally through their cross-examinations of the police officers themselves of the lawless conduct of the original two WS police officers who in the final analysis no one on the jury doubted instigated the entire conflict thereby proving the innocence of the defendants.

David Greenwald’s research and writings about the “cash for convictions” grants as an incentive and reason for the district attorney to prosecute weak or suspect cases reminded me of this case by providing a possible reason for the district attorney’s office to have proceeded with a prosecution when the evidence was not in their favor. Again, during our jury deliberations we discussed and wondered about the question: why was this case being prosecuted at all?

Most importantly, I must say, is: what's the deal with Reisig's military buzz cut?

He looks like a cartoon version of an aged Ben Stiller playing an attorney.

If you want to see how inconsistent Reisig is, check out the article on the Daily Democrat today. The DA offered 10 years to someone with a past criminal record who admitted to killing a young 17 year old boy.

Remember that Ajay Dev got 378 years for a rape that hundreds believe he never did. In Ajay's case the accuser was shown to be lying, the DA never even shown that a rape took place and did no investigation. Even the juror's admitted that the accuser's testimony was not credible.

The DA went out of his way to get the conviction. He didn't care about justice. He knew the accuser was lying and had a criminal record of perjury. The DA chose instead to create his own story not based on facts...unfortunately, the jury believed that our DA wouldn't lie to them.

These two cases illustrate clearly that the DA's office doesn't care about justice. They only want the conviction and will do whatever it takes to get it.

The state bar needs to be notified about possible misconduct by Reisig and Fall.