What are the district attorney and his deputies doing to protect our community? Very little. Sadly, it appears that our prosecutors would rather act like defense attorneys.
If you pay attention to the court briefs section of the Journal each week you’ll see what is happening in our courts. Plea deals are being made with criminals, who have lengthy criminal histories, for little or no jail time for serious crimes.
The judges here have voiced their displeasure with many of the plea deals and “backroom deals.” Recently my husband attended a court hearing only to hear that the prosecutor had made a plea deal with the public defender to give probation to a multi-incident offender. The judge voiced his displeasure by saying “the police might as well sit and drink coffee.”
He is definitely correct. It does no good for the police to arrest criminals if the district attorney won’t prosecute the cases. It is absurd that deals continue to be made that give chronic offenders probation, murderers no prison time, sex offenders very minimal sentences and rapists 90 days. If the thieves, rapists, sex offenders, repeat offenders and others continue to commit crimes without consequences, Cortez will not be a safe and enjoyable place to live.
Linda Hooker
Cortez