The latest revelations about District Attorney John Sarsfield
that have been sustained in an independent investigation
– mistreating employees for perceived political gain, creating a
climate of office retaliation, openly romancing his office manager
and treating women in his office in a contemptuous manner – lead to
but one conclusion: Sarsfield is not fit to be the county’s top law
enforcement official.
The latest revelations about District Attorney John Sarsfield that have been sustained in an independent investigation – mistreating employees for perceived political gain, creating a climate of office retaliation, openly romancing his office manager and treating women in his office in a contemptuous manner – lead to but one conclusion: Sarsfield is not fit to be the county’s top law enforcement official.
It’s time that Sarsfield and the San Benito County Board of Supervisors face that fact squarely. It’s time for District Attorney John Sarsfield to resign.
If he doesn’t, supervisors should take a vote of no confidence or censure and send that document to Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s office with a formal request for a full state investigation and immediate suspension of Sarsfield from office pending the results.
The people of San Benito County deserve no less.
An outside investigator, hired to look into sexual harassment allegations leveled by two women within the district attorney’s office, found that Sarsfield took adverse actions against four of his employees because he thought they had connections to the prior district attorney, according to a pre-mediation brief shown to the Board of Supervisors in October and made public in Thursday’s Free Lance.
The investigator sustained that Sarsfield:
Demoted an experienced deputy district attorney from handling felonies to handling misdemeanors, which weakens an already stretched-thin office
In a petty move, took away the physical offices of the Victim’s Witness department, although privacy clearly is an issue when working with victims of crime
Took away the telephone lines and stationary of the Victim Witness department in yet another vindictive action
Initiated disciplinary action against two women in the office who he felt had ties to the prior administration
Behaved in an openly rude and contemptuous manner toward female personnel – conduct unfit in any professional office
The investigator established that the motivation for the “adverse employment actions taken by Sarsfield was political, based on Sarsfield’s perception that four individuals … were a threat to his administration,” according to the brief.
In his zeal to wage a political battle, Sarsfield made it more difficult for these women to do their job in the county justice system. That’s a reprehensible dereliction of duty with regards to the justice system and the people of San Benito County.
His abuse of power has become a pattern of behavior that can no longer be ignored.
In December, he filed charges against Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz to put him in jail for five years and ban him from political office for life for because he stated he gathered three signatures on nomination papers that he did not. After making a political mountain out of a mole hill, Sarsfield offered to drop the charges if newly-elected De La Cruz resigned from the Board of Supervisors. De La Cruz rightly refused the deal, despite the DA’s persistent public threats, and ended up with a misdemeanor slap on the wrist.
This obvious politically-motivated attempt by Sarsfield to use the power of his office to subvert an election and keep a perceived “enemy” off the board clearly demonstrates that he cannot be trusted to judiciously wield his authority.
Beyond the abuse of authority, is Sarsfield’s skewed sense of justice. The iron-fist approach to De La Cruz – demanding resignation or threatening the full brunt of the justice system – turned into an ugly velvet glove in the Ralph Santos murder case. For a crime far more serious than missteps in gathering a few election signatures, Sarsfield accepted a weak plea bargain for an accused murderer, reducing the murder charge to voluntary manslaughter with a maximum of 14 years behind bars.
Why try to throw a man in jail for four years over signature gathering, then strike a deal that guts a murder case? The only answer: Because John Sarsfield’s actions were politically motivated.
Clearly, Sarsfield cannot and should not be trusted with the power of his office. His vindictive political agenda should no longer stain San Benito County.
Moreover, he is a liability to taxpayers. Besides settling the harassment suit for $35,000, the county has spent $160,000 related to the case, according to one source.
The evidence is overwhelming. Sarsfield should resign immediately or face the wrath of the Board of Supervisors and the people of San Benito County that will surely end in his political demise.
