There are two ways a Hollister defense attorney knows that he or
she has hit the big time. One is to be personally attacked in the
media by John Sarsfield. If you don’t score with the district
attorney, don’t fret counsel. You can still hold your head high if
your name makes it into the rabid ranting of a Paul Grannis
opinion.
Editor,
There are two ways a Hollister defense attorney knows that he or she has hit the big time. One is to be personally attacked in the media by John Sarsfield. If you don’t score with the district attorney, don’t fret counsel. You can still hold your head high if your name makes it into the rabid ranting of a Paul Grannis opinion.
Well, John either doesn’t know my name yet, or he can’t find anything to arrest me for, because he hasn’t bothered to mention me in any of his paranoid statements to the press. Not to worry though. Paul has picked up the slack for John.
In his March 4 column, Mr. Grannis seems to infer that because I lost a “high profile” case to Mr. Sarsfield’s office, I must be so hurt that I have become vindictive. I am now characterized by Mr. Grannis as a “jealous, self-serving” member of the “good ol’ boy” network.
If every defense attorney that lost a case sought a no-confidence vote against the district attorney’s office, every DA in the nation would be facing a no-confidence vote. Taking a clue from Paul, I haven’t checked the facts yet, but I don’t think that is the case.
I just want to make two things clear to Paul. The first is that I lost the case he is referring to, to Candice Hooper, not to John Sarsfield. Candi is an experienced trial lawyer whose personal skill was responsible for the People’s win. John Sarsfield isn’t even in her league when it comes to courtroom skill.
Second, and most important, is that both John Sarsfield and Paul Grannis seem to intentionally gloss over the fact that the majority of no confidence votes came from the members of the bar who practice civil law. Civil cases do not go through the DA’s office. Civil attorneys do not have an ax to grind when it comes to Mr. Sarsfield. Yet the majority of civil and criminal practitioners who voted believe that the man at the helm of the District Attorney’s office has failed to perform the job he was elected to do. We have lost confidence in him, not his office.
George A. Barton, Esq., Hollister
