Escalating violent crime pushes county prosecutor to drive hard
bargains on all cases
San Benito D.A. John Sarsfield announced this week he is
expanding his current no-plea-bargain policy on gang and gun cases
to all crimes.
The District Attorney said he has instructed all his deputy
prosecutors
– Denny Wei, Stephen Wagner and Candice Hooper – to make
defendants
”
plea to the sheet as charged without exception or go to jury
trial.
”
There will be no plea-bargaining without Sarsfield’s prior
authorization.
Escalating violent crime pushes county prosecutor to drive hard bargains on all cases
San Benito D.A. John Sarsfield announced this week he is expanding his current no-plea-bargain policy on gang and gun cases to all crimes.
The District Attorney said he has instructed all his deputy prosecutors – Denny Wei, Stephen Wagner and Candice Hooper – to make defendants “plea to the sheet as charged without exception or go to jury trial.” There will be no plea-bargaining without Sarsfield’s prior authorization.
Sarsfield said it’s the only way to deal with the tidal wave of violent crime he has seen in the community in recent months.
“I’m just sick and tired of it,” Sarsfield said. “I know the populace is too.”
Sarsfield attributes the recent rise in crime in the county to a lack of resources and manpower in the Hollister Police Department and the Sheriff’s Department. In other words, tiny budgets for law and order have emboldened criminals.
“It means there will be a lot more jury duty,” he added. “I hope people in this county are willing to do their part.”
Hollister defense attorney Art Cantu said he was reluctant to comment on the new policy until he sees it in writing. However, he did say he hopes San Benito judges and other officials in the court system get to weigh in on it before it goes into effect.
“When you set policies you should do it with some sort of agreement with the courts and the defense attorneys because it’s important that the justice system work together as a whole toward justice,” Cantu said. “We’re all under some constraints. A jury trial is the court of last resort. So it’s important that the court takes a strong stand on this.”
Sarsfield himself is going to take over the entire juvenile court caseload – a job that was previously divided among the deputy prosecutors.
He will get to test the new no-plea policy on a possible three strikes offender, who will be arraigned on charges of felony robbery at knife point. Elias Avila of Hollister is being held without bail for attempting to steal his spouse’s car. At the same time, two charges of domestic violence against Avila, 29, are still pending.
Avila was convicted of four residential burglaries in 1994. He did six years in prison for that, got out in 2000, then went back in the same year for getting caught selling narcotics. He did 32 months for the drug crime.
“This guy is a one-man crime wave,” Sarsfield said.
Sarsfield said he is fed up with people making excuses for violent criminals.
“I’m also sick and tired of the apologies being made on behalf of these guys, where you have people whining about people like Corbett LeGrand, a twice-convicted child molester, or Lance Purcell, who stalked his victims,” Sarsfield said.
Sarsfield was referring to Purcell’s defense attorney, George Barton.
But Cantu said there are exceptions to every policy.
“The reality is evidence comes in to change cases, making them weaker or stronger.” Cantu said. “I’m sure every policy has an exception to the rule.”
