Other Side’s Tactics

The public defender’s criticism of Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury’s disqualification of Judge Storch from felony cases is astoundingly disingenuous and hypocritical.

In the past few years, the public defender’s office has used the disqualification process, and threats of the disqualification process, to remove Judge Bruce Thompson (the former district attorney) from child dependency court, attempt to block conservative Municipal Court judges Herb Curtis and Bruce Clark from hearing felony cases in a Superior Court long dominated by liberal Brown appointees, limit former Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Vince O’Neill to hearing mostly civil cases when he first became a judge, and block former Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Riley from hearing criminal cases as a judge--just because Mr. Bradbury was his campaign manager--even though the people of this county elected Judge Riley to his position.

Media concerns over the dangerous concentrations of government power might better be directed toward the public defender’s office than the D.A.’s office. Legally privileged character assassination, manipulation of witnesses, deliberate orchestration of press attacks on victims, witnesses and prosecutors--not to mention the collective power to shut down the system in the name of criminal defendants by deliberately dragging out proceedings--have become all too large a part of the public defender’s political repertoire.

That’s why some counties have looked to abolish their public defender’s offices and return to the use of individual appointed counsel whose concerns are for the rights of their clients--not the petty manipulation of the court system.

In a county like ours, where the Board of Supervisors diverts Proposition 172 money to the public defender’s office while thumbing its nose at our firefighters, the public should demand some answers from all our elected officials as to why this county’s priorities are so badly skewed.

MATT HARDY

Camarillo

Matt Hardy is a Ventura County deputy district attorney.