In yet another misleading recent letter to the editor, it was
implied that I want to spend taxpayer money on a coffee service for
the office. This is absolutely false.
Editor,
In yet another misleading recent letter to the editor, it was implied that I want to spend taxpayer money on a coffee service for the office. This is absolutely false.
The District Attorney’s Office holds in trust approximately $10,000 in money taken from drug dealers through court ordered forfeitures. The law allows the District Attorney’s Office, with Board of Supervisors approval, to spend the drug dealer forfeited money on services, equipment or programs that we would not normally be able to afford with general fund (taxpayer) money.
The District Attorney’s Office maintains a lounge/waiting area for victims of crime, witnesses and police officers who frequently must spend long hours waiting for court hearings. Witnesses, victims, and officers waiting to appear in court cannot simply be “on call” because they must often appear on a moment’s notice.
In an effort to make their wait a little more comfortable, I thought it was a good idea to take a portion of that drug dealer forfeited money and spend it so that persons having to wait long hours for court like rape victims, parents of abused children, or tired police officers who may have worked all night, could have something to eat or drink prior to facing a court hearing. As stated above, none of the cost would have been borne by the taxpayers.
Unfortunately, there is not enough support by some members of the Board of Supervisors to authorize the expenditure, notwithstanding the fact that other county departments have had similar expenditures out of the general fund. As a result, the crime victims and witnesses must do without. Ironically, the same reluctant board members have no problem authorizing hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to be paid to criminal defense attorneys and their “investigators” who work so hard to turn loose the very criminals whose crimes require the presence of the victims and witnesses in the first place.
John Sarsfield, district attorney
