Goodbye Dolores!

Breaking News from the San Jose Mercury News:

In a stunning outcome determined only after the counting of late ballots Friday, veteran prosecutor Jeff Rosen (pictured) has succeeded in unseating his boss, District Attorney Dolores Carr — the first time in at least eight decades that a challenger has wrested the office from an incumbent. But Carr will continue to lead the office until early next year, raising the question of how she will deal with a largely mutinous staff of prosecutors in the next seven months, given that most supported Rosen.

The historic upset came after Rosen, 42, spent months relentlessly attacking Carr's ethics and judgment while offering himself as a reform-minded and ethical alternative. Carr, 56, tried to keep the focus on Rosen's lack of management experience, but voters apparently took more stock in Rosen's vow to be "a DA for the people" who would restore public trust in an office plagued by Carr's controversial missteps and questionable decision-making. "People really value high ethics and integrity in a DA," Rosen said. "The experience that really mattered was my experience as a tough, fair prosecutor."

Carr conceded Friday afternoon, about 90 minutes after elections officials released updated election returns. With 444,220 votes counted, Rosen won 224,399, or 50.5 percent; Carr had 49.4 percent. There are still an estimated 7,600 ballots left to count in the race, but Rosen is leading by 2,854 votes, a gap even Carr recognized she was unlikely to overcome.

Incumbent Rove Racket DA Losing in Silicon Valley

Dolores Carr, (pictured) the witch of Silicon Valley, the Queen of the Rove Republican Racket, the soon-to-be-former District Attorney of Santa Clara County, California is losing a heated race to retain her job as the top prosecutor.

Carr alienated many when she hit the nuclear button in January and boycotted a judge who lambasted prosecutorial misconduct by one of Carr's Assistant District Attorneys.

The San Jose Mercury News writes this morning:

In a startling development, Santa Clara County's most competitive race is still being bitterly fought today, with no clear winner emerging for district attorney. Veteran prosecutor Jeff Rosen is holding a razor-thin lead over District Attorney Dolores Carr, 50.61 percent to 49.39, with all precincts reporting. However, there are still several thousand mail-in ballots still not counted. If Rosen wins, it would be the first time in at least 83 years that a challenger has wrested the office from an incumbent district attorney. Even if he only comes close, it would be extraordinary. Sitting district attorneys are usually invincible in Santa Clara County, but Rosen has built his campaign on Carr's missteps and controversial decisions.

Carr, a former judge, has been criticized for intervening on behalf of a campaign contributor's client; for failing to see the potential conflict in her husband's financial involvement with a murder victim's family, and for boycotting a judge who found that a prosecutor committed misconduct. Carr's decision not to charge anyone for the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at a De Anza College baseball players' house party three years ago also was controversial. The issue resurfaced recently when documents in the girl's civil case against some of the players showed that Carr's office did not test all of the evidence in the criminal case.

"Shameful" Conduct in Brooklyn, New York

Last month, we posted a breaking news item about alleged prosecutorial misconduct in Brooklyn that was viewed at the time as possibly freeing a murderer.

Tonight, breaking news again. The New York Times reports:

Facing questions about whether a high-ranking prosecutor’s actions during a murder investigation and trial constituted misconduct, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office agreed on Tuesday to allow a man imprisoned in that case to have his murder conviction vacated and his record cleared with the assurance that he will not be retried. The agreement means that the man, Jabbar Collins, who 15 years ago was sentenced to 34 years to life in the murder of a Brooklyn landlord, will be freed later this week — the culmination of years of his own legal efforts to bring light to prosecutorial misconduct that he said deprived him of a fair trial. 

The decision also spares officials from the Brooklyn district attorney’s office — most notably the hard-charging prosecutor who oversaw the case, Michael F. Vecchione [PICTURED]— from being compelled to testify about the allegations of misconduct during a habeas corpus hearing that was set to resume this week. The deal amounted to a rare and embarrassing admission by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office — which had initially insisted that Mr. Collins be retried — that the case had been mishandled. Judge Dora L. Irizarry, of the United States District Court in Brooklyn, lamented that in agreeing to free Mr. Collins, the district attorney’s office had avoided a hearing that would have offered greater transparency into the case’s “troubling history.” “It is indeed beyond disappointing, it is really sad that the district attorney’s office persists in standing firm and saying that it did nothing wrong here,” the judge said. She described the handling of the case by the district attorney’s office as “shameful.”

Rove Racket Victim Sues Ex-U.S. Attorney in Mississippi

Former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz, Jr. and his wife are suing former U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton of the Southern District of Mississippi for invasion of privacy and last month they won a major decision in the case.

Lampton became a high priest in the Rove Republican Racket after he had targeted and prosecuted Diaz not once but twice, and lost both times. Diaz, a prominent Democrat, has since sought justice against Lampton personal vendetta against him.

Coincidentally, Lampton was going to be fired by the Bush administration in 2005 but saved his scalp when he started targeting and prosecuting Democrats.

In this case, after losing both trials, Lampton foolishly handed over Diaz's confidential and personal income taxes to a state commission, where Lampton's cousin worked.

The Sun Herald reports:

Dunn Lampton’s former position as a U.S. attorney does not give him immunity from a lawsuit in which former state Supreme Court Judge Oliver Diaz Jr. and his wife, Jennifer, accuse Lampton of invading their privacy and disclosing confidential information, a federal judge has ruled. “The times that someone has been allowed to sue a U.S. attorney in the history of the United States are extremely rare, and this is one of them,” Diaz said Thursday. Dunn Lampton had asked that the lawsuit against him be thrown out because federal prosecutors have immunity from prosecution. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan denied his request. Jordan found a criminal investigation of Diaz had ended, and Lampton was acting outside the scope of his prosecutor’s job, when the alleged misdeeds occurred.

[After losing his criminal case against Diaz,] Lampton then filed a complaint against Diaz with the state’s Judicial Performance Commission. The Diazes allege he gave the commission confidential tax records the U.S. Attorney’s Office had secured during the criminal investigation. Leslie Lampton, Dunn Lampton’s cousin, served on the commission and was involved in the investigation. When the Diazes learned the commission had their tax records, they requested the documents be returned. Commission attorney Darlene Ballard instead sent the records back to Lampton. The commission complaint against the Diazes was dismissed in December 2008.

“In the present case, (Dunn) Lampton provided the tax records to the commission after Diaz was acquitted,” Jordan wrote in his order. “The prosecution was over; the conduct was neither part of his prosecutorial function nor part of his role as an advocate.”

Shocking Choking Chicago Public Defender

We end the week with a unbelievable but true story that happened yesterday in Chicago.

From the ABA Journal:

An Illinois prosecutor was hospitalized today after an assistant public defender allegedly choked him in a court hallway in Chicago following a courtroom dispute over setting a hearing date in a post-conviction murder case. Police said an unidentified assistant Cook County public defender put a 50-year-old Cook County prosecutor into a "choking headlock" this morning at the criminal courthouse at 26th and California, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. "He had his hands wrapped around his throat and was just kind of riding him down the wall," an unidentified source told the Chicago Tribune.

Another unidentified source said the public defender "just lost it and shoved him against the wall" and put his stunned opposing counsel into a headlock after the prosecutor responded unsympathetically to the public defender's complaint about a status date, the Tribune says. An unidentified bystander told the Sun-Times the public defender said he was sick of being mocked by the prosecutor. The public defender, who sources said handles appellate matters, is being held as a suspect in a misdemeanor simple battery case, the Sun-Times states. Accounts differ concerning how seriously the unidentified prosecutor might be injured; however, it appears that the prosecutor may have been taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital simply for observation.One of two Cook County sheriff's deputies who broke up the fight in the courthouse's first-floor main hallway sustained a minor back injury, the Tribune reports.

Choreographed Political Show in Orange County

In March, we reported about David R. Hunt (pictured), the City Attorney from Newport Beach, California, suspected at the time of beating his wife.

Now comes word that the agent of the Rove Republican Racket, in the heart of Republicanville, is off the hook.


In a choreographed effort that only Republicans could pull off, the Orange County prosecutors declined to prosecute citing "lack of evidence" while the local  Newport Beach City Council "unanimously" reinstated Mr. Hunt.

So much for his wife's bump on her head!

The Daily Pilot reports:

Two months after placing him on paid administrative leave following his arrest on suspicion of felony spousal abuse, the Newport Beach City Council voted 6 to 0 Wednesday to allow City Atty. David Hunt to immediately return to his job.  In addition, the Orange County district attorney's office announced the same day that it has decided not to file charges against him. I'm obviously pleased by the decision, but I'm also thankful and grateful for the objective analysis of the council and thorough investigation by the D.A.," Hunt said by phone Wednesday afternoon. "My family and I agree with the decision that this crime was not committed and none of us wanted to see a conviction."

Mississippi Judge Gives Rove Racket the Finger

The Rove Republican Racket is stronger than ever in Mississippi. And they are embittered as ever.

Last week, Judge Larry Buffington, a Democrat aligned with former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz, Jr., bluntly told the Racket and its goons to "move on," politely giving them the finger.

Readers may recall that former Justice Oliver Diaz, Jr. was a siting judge who was dragged through the Mississippi mud and brought to trial twice by the Rove Republican Racket. Diaz was acquitted twice. Sadly, he lost re-election after the Racket smeared his good name.

Last year, Buffington helped Diaz get a low-paying job that will help Diaz qualify for a state pension. He was a year short of qualifying.

The Racket went after Buffington, leaking the appointment. Buffington tried to find out who leaked the information, issuing subpoenas, and a Republican stooge filed a complaint since it was beyond Buffington's authority to do so.

At the end, Buffington was slapped on the hand and will probably be fined $100. The Jackson Clarion Ledger reports:

The Commission on Judicial Performance said Thursday it found Buffington lacked authority to command Supervisors Pete Lowery and Randy Moore to appear before him to answer questions about who leaked to the media his appointment of a former state justice as a Simpson County Youth Court public defender. "Judge Buffington admitted that he had failed to comply with the law when issuing the subpoenas, but did not care," the commission report said. The commission is recommending to the state Supreme Court that Buffington be assessed $100 court cost with the reprimand.The state's highest court has ultimate say on punishment for judges. Reached Thursday evening via phone, Buffington said of the commission's recommendation: "It's fair. It's time to conclude this and move on." In January 2009, Buffington ordered the Simpson County Board of Supervisors to hire Oliver Diaz Jr. as a Youth Court public defender at $400 a month, plus state retirement.