Editor:
This is a clarification to your story today [Thursday, April 27] on the Prado matter.
Mr. Prado was charged on December 20, 2005 with three crimes: two felonies and one misdemeanor. They were all gun related.
Mr. Prado was held to answer at the preliminary hearing, despite contradictory evidence.
Denny Wei, the deputy DA formerly assigned to the case expressed concerns to me about the relative strength of the case. He recommended that the case be compromised by way of a misdemeanor plea, notwithstanding our general policy of not plea bargaining gun cases. I agreed with his assessment and authorized the offer.
The offer was rejected by the defense on March 23.
At that time the matter was then re-assigned to Deputy DA Candy Hooper. The offer was then re-extended by Ms. Hooper, and it was accepted by the defendant yesterday. The court approved the offer and the defendant was sentenced.
The suggestion by your paper that the offer was inappropriate is not accurate. The case had difficult and serious witness issues, misidentifications, and a complete lack of corroborating physical evidence such as fingerprints, etc.
I wholly support the actions of the prosecutors assigned to the case as being appropriate and fair, although, obviously, not what we would want in a perfect world. As I have said before, and which your paper conveniently seems to forget, we have to deal with the facts as they are, not as we would like them to be.
I also find it interesting your paper is continually harping that this office is too hard on some defendants, but not hard enough on others.
John Sarsfield, San Benito County District Attorney
Editor’s note: The principal, school district officials and the San Benito County Superintendent of Schools expressed concerns about the plea agreement. The charges listed in the article were correct. Readers can view the entire news article “Man in School Gun Scare Gets Plea Deal” by visiting our Web site at www.freelancenews.com or by stopping by our office at 350 Sixth St.
