S.D. City Atty. Criticized as Undercutting Police Efforts

A county grand jury report released Monday accused the San Diego city attorney of allowing “major problems” within his criminal division to undermine the efforts of police and other city officials.

The 10-page report charges that City Atty. John Witt has put a “low priority” on the criminal division. It also charged that poor supervision and inexperienced prosecutors have allowed some misdemeanor cases to go unprosecuted.

“Twenty-five cases over a 30-day period were returned to the police department for nonprosecution by the criminal division,” the report stated. “Of these 25, the reason given in 18 of the cases was ‘too old’ or ‘antiquated,’ and some had been in the hands of the criminal division for a year.”

The report said some of the cases returned included battery, possession of PCP, theft and drunk driving.

According to the report, the grand jury met with five San Diego County Municipal Court judges on Nov. 28. The judges reported problems such as paper work not being in courtrooms on time, a city attorney deputy not appearing to prosecute, and cases being dismissed because of the age of complaints.

A meeting with the presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Municipal Court showed that no similar problems exist within the City of Los Angeles city attorney’s criminal division, the report said.

The problems in the criminal division defeat policies adopted by the San Diego City Council, the report said.

“For example, the council and the community want to see the downtown area cleared of drunks, panhandlers and petty crime,” the report said. “Yet, if these offenses are cited by the San Diego Police Department and are not prosecuted by the city attorney, they continue.

“Lack of prosecution for offenses cited also creates serious morale problems in the San Diego Police Department.”

Loss of revenue to the city from fines and forfeitures is another result of department inefficiencies, it said.

Witt said Monday he accepts full responsibility for the problems, but added that he does not believe things are as bad as the report states.

One of the complaints in the report was that Witt has used the criminal division as a training ground for rookie lawyers. It said that even some supervisors have less than two years’ legal experience.

“The result is inexperienced people training fresh recruits out of law school,” the report said. In some instances a student waiting for the bar examination is hired conditionally on his/her passing the bar.

“The training program is basically a ‘lecture’ series in the division library for one week, with some court observation the second week.”

Witt admitted that training may be lacking, but he denied the claim that his deputies should be more experienced.

“I think most members of the legal profession will tell you that two years of prosecuting misdemeanor cases is enough before they (deputies) begin to burn out,” Witt said.

“This report probably leaves you with the conclusion that we have no training at all. We do. It’s probably less formal than the grand jury thinks it should be.”

He said that, to alleviate some of the problems, he will request more money from the City Council to hire four additional deputies. This will free some deputies for training while others fill in for them, he said.

Witt also disagreed with the grand jury’s claim that he has not given the criminal division enough priority. If money is any indication, he said, about half the city attorney’s budget goes to the criminal division.

Witt said the report came as no surprise to him and he will do everything he can to bring the division up to standards.

“It’s never pleasant to get reports that are critical of what we do,” Witt said. “And for that reason I don’t care for it that much. But I think they will tell you that I have cooperated with them.”

The city attorney prosecutes misdemeanor crimes within San Diego. The San Diego County district attorney handles all felonies, and misdemeanor cases outside the city.