Annual Report 2007 - San Diego County District Attorney

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In People v. Munizza, Deputy District Attorney James Atkins won his People’s appeal seeking to overturn the illegal granting of a certificate of rehabilitation to an out-of-state defendant who was convicted of possession of methamphetamine for sale. Deputy District Attorney Richard Armstrong successfully litigated a People’s appeal in People v. Glaser resulting in reinstatement of an out-of-state “strike” prior and substantially increasing the defendant’s well-deserved punishment following his conviction for robbery. Responding to a difficult writ petition to the Court of Appeal in People v. Jernigan, Deputy District Attorney Katherine Flaherty defeated a defense attempt to secretly test, and thereby destroy, portions of the prosecution’s blood splatter evidence in an El Cajon murder case. The defense writ petition in the case of People v. Rhodes from El Cajon presented the novel question of whether a defendant was entitled to be sentenced by a judge other than the one who took the change of plea. Deputy District Attorney Steven Carr’s response convinced the Court of Appeal to deny the writ petition. Deputy District Attorney James Atkins continues the battle to reinstate the murder charges in a cold case homicide which were improvidently dismissed on speedy trial grounds. His petition for review to the California Supreme Court was granted in People v. Boysen renewing hope that justice will be done. Our office also filed an impressive amicus brief in the California Supreme Court in People v. Nelson, a pending out-of-county case with similar issues. The Appellate and Training Division is also responsible for publishing materials that are tremendous resources for this office and prosecutors’ offices across the state. These include the Sentencing Outline authored by Chuck Nickel, DDA, (ret) and Autobrief authored by DDA Craig Fisher. The District Attorney’s Office continues to be a state and national model with regard to training. Day-long trainings in February and October addressed topics required for continuing legal education credits. The Appellate and Training Division launched an ambitious training calendar in 2007. Seven new trainings on topics from computer forensics to lifer hearings were streamed live online throughout the office. Specialized training in discovery and sexual assault prosecution were well received, and new programs such as Tech Boost and Felony Sentencing are in development. The final components of the training calendar are the integrated advocacy courses – New Deputy Training, Felony Trial Advocacy and Advanced Trial Advocacy. Assistant Training Director Jim Kelly and all the members of the Legal Training Advisory Committee devoted countless hours to the success of these programs. ■ Appellate and Training Division 2007 Staffing Attorneys 11 Paralegals 2 Support Staff 4 Staff Development Coordinator 1 Staff Development Specialists 2 Total 20 2007 Annual Report | 21
Case Issuance & Extradition Division The Case Issuance and Extradition Division is managed by Division Chief Terri Wyatt, Assistant Chief Susan Gust, Legal Support Manager Debbie Lee and Paralegal Supervisor Doris Hollins. The division is comprised of five units: • Domestic and International Extraditions • Felony Issuing & Priors Unit • Probation Revocation Unit • Lifer Unit • DA Liaison Unit Domestic and International Extraditions The Extraditions Unit is responsible for the office-wide efforts to return fugitive defendants from other states and foreign countries to San Diego. It also works on cases involving fugitives located in San Diego who are being extradited to other states. In 2007, the unit extradited 119 defendants from other states to San Diego and handled 55 hearings for the extradition of fugitives from San Diego to other states. Examples of high-profile extraditions in 2007 include: • Alleged murderer Omar Emanuel Maldonado-Cuevas, who was located and arrested in Tijuana, Mexico. Maldonado-Cuevas is accused of shooting a 17-year-old girl in the back of the head at a party in 2000. He immediately fled the country and was believed to be in Mexico. The San Diego District Attorney’s Extradition Unit is working with the United States Office of Internal Affairs to proceed with the formal extradition of Maldonado-Cuevas to bring him back to San Diego to face murder charges. 22
Page 1 and 2: Office of the San Diego County Dist
Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents District Attorney
Page 7 and 8: Our Narcotics and Communications Di
Page 9 and 10: DA UNIVERSITY: THE FRESHMAN CLASS D
Page 11 and 12: CRYSTAL DARKNESS CAMPAIGN TAKES AIM
Page 13 and 14: WILDFIRES STRIKE SAN DIEGO COUNTY -
Page 15: District Attorney Divisions
Page 18 and 19: Central Operations The District Att
Page 20 and 21: Another case has charged Robert Car
Page 22 and 23: The Bureau’s Special Operations D
Page 24 and 25: San Diego Padres and San Diego Char
Page 28 and 29: • Rhonda Van Pelt is accused of k
Page 30 and 31: The division also consulted on case
Page 32 and 33: Media And Public Relations All inqu
Page 34 and 35: New Media The District Attorney’s
Page 36 and 37: The division’s consumer and envir
Page 38 and 39: Domestic Violence In 2007, the San
Page 40 and 41: Cases of note in the Family Protect
Page 42 and 43: Further, they work closely with loc
Page 44 and 45: The first phase of a new travel des
Page 46 and 47: Premium Fraud Task Force Premium fr
Page 48 and 49: Operation Wildfire 2007 Within hour
Page 50 and 51: Arson Arson cases are supervised an
Page 52 and 53: Truancy The San Diego County Distri
Page 54 and 55: Operation Dually Noted/Road Trip De
Page 56 and 57: In 2007, the number of defendants s
Page 58 and 59: The Victim Assistance Program offer
Page 60 and 61: During 2007, Division Chief Summer
Page 62 and 63: During 2007, the division had more
Page 64 and 65: One of the largest divisions in the
Page 66: Finally, the unit has a two-route c
Page 70 and 71: Organizational Chart DISTRICT ATTOR
Page 72 and 73: Fiscal Revenues & Expenditures Fisc
Page 74 and 75: Awards Chief Deputy District Attorn
Page 76 and 77:
Credits Communications Director Edi
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Annual Report 2007 - San Diego County District Attorney

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