Reiner for Reelection

When Ira Reiner set his sights on the job of Los Angeles County district attorney, there were legitimate concerns that he saw it merely as one more stepping stone to higher office. During his first term, however, the agency has achieved a felony-conviction rate of nearly 93%, and morale among the huge staff of prosecutors has improved. He has worked hard enough to justify a second term, and we recommend a vote for his reelection on June 7.

It is a tough job. Each year the nation’s largest prosecutorial agency handles more than 325,000 criminal complaints, 58,000 preliminary hearings, 36,000 Superior Court cases and 222,000 Municipal Court cases. The workload is immense, and there is no sign of a big drop in crime.

Street gangs are nearly out of control in sections of Los Angeles, peddling drugs and killing. Law-abiding families justifiably fear gun battles outside their homes that border on routine, and it is an act of courage to walk to school or head for work.

Reiner has a better grasp of the day-in and day-out explosions of violence fueled by cheap cocaine and huge profits than has his chief opponent, L’ea D’Agostino, a deputy district attorney. Reiner knows his way around some pretty tough sections of the county, and he meets willingly with leaders of crime-ridden communities.

During his tenure, Reiner has expanded the specialized hard-core gang unit staffed by experienced prosecutors. He has pushed for longer sentences for all drug peddlers, whether major entrepreneurs or small-time dealers.

As has anyone familiar with the courts, he has complained about a criminal-justice system that moves “with the speed of a herd of turtles.” To move cases to trial more quickly, he has instructed deputy district attorneys not to agree automatically to continuances--delays of days or weeks--often sought by defense attorneys. To speed up resolution, prosecutors have also participated in a pilot program to arrange arraignments on the same day as arrests in several branch courts.

Child abuse, child support, domestic violence, drunk drivers, environmental crimes and crimes in the workplace are on Reiner’s agenda. He also wants to pull truants off the streets, which would help eliminate daytime house burglaries. And he wants to focus more attention on first- and second-time juvenile offenders to get to kids before they become killers.

Reiner, ambitious and calculating, may--as critics say--weigh every decision on a political barometer, and he may only be passing through the chief prosecutor’s office on his way to better things. If so, he has put the time of passage to good use and proved himself a capable district attorney.