4 Prosecutors Resigning Over Wages

Four Ventura County prosecutors, including a top deputy district attorney, said Tuesday they are resigning within the next month because of substandard wages.

“I’m leaving the job I love,” said Kevin DeNoce, a senior deputy district attorney who heads the office’s appeals and training division. “And I resent the fact that I can’t afford to be a career prosecutor.”

DeNoce and three other deputy district attorneys have either resigned or informed superiors that they intend to leave the district attorney’s 90-lawyer office within the next month.

DeNoce, 36, said he will leave Thursday to enter private practice in Ventura--where he said he expects to make substantially more than his $70,000 annual salary--practicing family law and criminal defense.

“The county invested $2 million to $3 million to train me, and now they’re dumping me into the private sector to do criminal defense. It’s ridiculous,” said DeNoce, a nine-year prosecutor who trains all new lawyers and has handled nearly all of the district attorney’s appeal work for four years.

DeNoce, past president of the county prosecutors’ union, said studies show that Ventura County pays its prosecutors 20% less than other counties of similar size, and that its pension system is one of the worst in the state.

“This county is going to continue to have a drain of talent,” he said. “The morale in this office has plummeted.”

Deputy prosecutor David Armstrong, 31, said Friday will be his last day in the office. He will become an assistant city attorney in Santa Monica for about $70,000 a year, a 40% pay increase.

Also, deputy district attorneys Linda Esparza, 31, and Brenda Dillard, 27, are resigning to become FBI agents. They expect to enter the federal agency’s academy next month. Dillard said she will receive $50,000 a year with the FBI, a pay raise of about $8,000. Starting dates will not be certain until background checks are complete, they said.

Esparza said she will be paid about the same as her current $50,000 salary, but that federal benefits are better and agents get yearly cost-of-living increases.

County prosecutors have not received a cost-of-living raise for several years, and current contract negotiations are stalled after 18 months of contentious debate. A key issue has been that county prosecutors make many thousands of dollars a year less than county-employed civil lawyers.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury has supported his lawyers’ demands for more pay and expressed frustration over the sagging morale in his office. Tuesday, Bradbury chief deputy Kevin McGee said:

“It’s going to be difficult in terms of recruiting and retaining good people. You don’t replace a Kevin DeNoce overnight. He’s one of the most talented appellate lawyers we’ve ever had in this office. It’s really unfortunate it’s come to this, but people feel they need to be able to take care of their families.”

Frank Schillo, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, said he regretted the departure of the prosecutors, but said the county is paying a reasonable wage.

“We can’t arm-wrestle people to keep them here,” Schillo said. “They have to make their own decisions about what they’re going to do. Some people will be dissatisfied with their pay and will leave. And that’s too bad. We hate to lose their experience.”

Schillo said the deputy prosecutors’ union needs to give a little to finally resolve the contract dispute. “People have to compromise,” he said.

But DeNoce said county prosecutors and lawyers who represent indigent suspects out of the public defender’s office are grossly underpaid contrasted with their counterparts across the state.

“I’m not leaving because I expect to be paid as much as a private attorney,” DeNoce said. “I’m leaving because this county will not pay comparable wages with other counties.”

The four departing attorneys said they owe between $50,000 and $100,000 in law school loans and bills that they cannot repay on their current salaries.

“Unfortunately, the salaries are so bad that people are struggling,” Esparza said. “I would say that quite a few of my colleagues have resumes out.”

Armstrong said he realized that the typical resident may find it hard to understand how someone making $50,000 “could be whining about money. But when you’ve got $80,000 to $100,000 in school loans, you don’t have much left over.”