Public Turns Up the Heat on Criminals

As a 16-year veteran of the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, Alan Yochelson recalled one of the first trials he prosecuted: A young man was sent to prison for 12 years after he broke into a woman’s home, raped her and stole her belongings.

At the time, the sentence was considered “tough” punishment, said Yochelson, who over his career has helped prosecute the Night Stalker, O.J. Simpson and the four officers who beat Rodney G. King.

In a sign of how laws and public attitudes have changed, Yochelson said a defendant who committed a similar violent sexual offense today would get 25 years to life.

Tougher sentences are a trend brought on by increased public awareness and sensitivity to such crimes, says Yochelson, head of a unit at the Van Nuys Courthouse specializing in crimes against women and children.

But the same changes have resulted in more charges being brought, swamping his four-prosecutor unit with work, he says.

“It’s not unusual to be attending to several different cases at a time throughout the day,” he said. “There are court appearances and telephone calls with victims and witnesses. We also have to review new cases and prepare for upcoming trials.”

In the first six months of this year, Yochelson and his colleagues filed 147 cases--50 for sexual assault, 90 for domestic violence, four for murders involving a domestic partner and three for baby killings. Prosecutors declined to bring another 150 cases due to a lack of evidence.

The district attorney’s office has long recognized the importance of assigning one attorney to handle the emotional and practical complexities of a case from beginning to end, Yochelson said.

Now, he said, that principle is being expanded. Special prosecution units have been established downtown and in other branch offices including Compton and Long Beach.

It pays to have specialized prosecutors because of the unique nature of crimes between family members, he said. Prosecutors often must try to talk victims into testifying against defendants to whom they have strong economic and emotional ties, or must press ahead with cases when the victim refuses to.

That happened to Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Turkat this year. An abuse victim refused to testify against her boyfriend, but the Van Nuys prosecutor won a conviction based on photographs and police interviews.

Sex crimes present similar challenges, according to prosecutors. Adult victims are sometimes reluctant to discuss intimate details. Also, sexual assaults often involve acquaintance rape, which brings up issues of consent and as well as perception on the part of the two parties, such as “no meaning no,” Yochelson said.

Perhaps the most difficult cases involve child abuse. Child witnesses require particular care and expertise because they are vulnerable to suggestion and can be reluctant or unable to put into words what happened to them, prosecutors said.

Worst of all is the emotional toll on the adults involved. “It is not uncommon to see a child take the witness stand and sob without answering questions. It’s heart-wrenching,” Yochelson said.

Nonetheless, the job is rewarding because prosecutors say it presents an opportunity to remove truly violent offenders from the community.

“The trick is to stop the cycle of abuse in its tracks. We don’t want kids growing up thinking this kind of behavior is acceptable and then going out and repeating that conduct.”