A Prosecutor Who Won’t Rest

Jane L. Shade laughs about this now, but when she was in law school, she never, ever wanted to be a prosecutor.

“I was thinking, ‘Who wants to be around all those crooks all the time?’ ” she told me.

Yet for 13 years, Shade has been one of the best prosecutors in this county. Beyond that, she has emerged as a statewide leader in her field--writing and speaking on domestic violence and stalking cases. She’s also been a driving force in establishing free legal clinics for domestic violence victims in Orange County.

Shade will be honored as “1998 Attorney of the Year” by the Orange County Women Lawyers Assn. at its luncheon today at the Airport Hilton Hotel in Irvine.

“Jane has an incredible talent for getting diverse groups of people to work together,” said Elizabeth Henderson, a fellow prosecutor who tries homicide cases and who will speak on her behalf. “She can talk to 26 chiefs of police and get them all to do what she wants to do.”

I remember from my court reporter days one particularly tragic child rape case of Shade’s. She handled the victim and her family with delicacy, yet she was relentless in hammering away at the defense in court.

That was when Shade was assigned to the office’s sexual assault unit. After that, she did juvenile cases and then consumer fraud. Four years ago, she took over as domestic violence prosecutor. That part of the district attorney’s office has gone from a one-lawyer shop to an 11-lawyer section, which she supervises.

So how did an anti-prosecutor law student at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles wind up with a career like this?

“I came to work in the D.A.’s office as a law clerk, and it completely turned me around,” she said. “I wanted to work someplace with high ethical standards, and I found it here.”

One frustration to the job: Not all victims want to follow through and prosecute their abusers. Their abusers have gotten to them, or they think they should be quiet for the sake of the children.

Shade’s philosophy is to prosecute anyway. She told me:

“We call the victims to testify, they tell the jury it wasn’t really that bad, we thank them, and then we go on with our case. We put on the police officers who responded, we show the victim’s earlier statements, we introduce the tape from the 911 call. We go ahead and seek a conviction.”

It’s important to follow through despite some victims’ reluctance for a couple of reasons, Shade said.

One is that “we grow our violence in the home. The children see that hitting or assaulting is the way to get things done, and they grow up and repeat the same thing.”

Also, she said, she’s seen too many cases where abusers continue their actions in new relationships.

“So many times when we’re prosecuting someone, we see that there was a restraining order against him sought by an earlier victim,” Shade said.

Henderson told me what’s so nice about seeing Shade receive this honor is that “Jane is so self-effacing. She’s always trying to give credit to someone else.”

This time the credit will be heaped in her direction. Other speakers scheduled to talk about Shade at the luncheon are Dist. Atty. Michael Capizzi and Wally Wade, assistant district attorney for special operations.

Star Power: Karl Malden is heading our way this month to promote his insightful autobiography, “When Do I Start?” Malden rarely got the girl in the movies (a huge nose can be an obstacle), but what a marvelous cast of characters he’s posted on his stage and film resume. Among them: Gen. Omar Bradley in “Patton,” Mitch in “Streetcar Named Desire,” and Father John in “On the Waterfront.” My own favorite Malden role was Shooter, the poker dealer in “The Cincinnati Kid.”

Malden writes that he did a run-through of the “Patton” script with the real Omar Bradley. The general suggested that Malden should low-key one scene in which he lectures George C. Scott (Patton). Bradley told him: “I’d just look him in the eye and quietly, with all the intensity I could muster, tell him exactly what I wanted him to do. And he’d do it.”

“Why would he do it?” Malden asked.

The general responded: “Because I’ve got one more star on my shoulder than he has.”

Malden will be one of the speakers at the Jan. 22 Round Table West luncheon at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. Accompanying him will be his daughter, Carla Malden, who wrote the book with him.

Light Still Shining: You may well associate the national Points of Light program that honors local community groups with President George Bush. But the Clintons have revived the program, and the latest Point of Light Award on Monday went to Orange County’s Operation Clean Slate.

Operation Clean Slate, based in Costa Mesa, is a nonprofit group that gets youngsters involved in community service. Last year it got more than 800 students to devote a total of 15,000 volunteer hours to community projects.

Wrap-Up: Here are a couple of other lawyers getting nice back pats for their work:

Mission Viejo attorney Donna Bashaw has been honored by California Women Lawyers for her work promoting grandparents’ rights. Bashaw has set up free workshops for grandparents who want to know their legal rights regarding their grandchildren.

Also, Rebecca Jurado of Seal Beach has been honored by the Orange County chapter of MANA (Mexican American Women’s National Assn.), which helps low-income Latinas.

Jurado is the past president of the Hispanic Bar Assn. of Orange County. She’s also a former staff attorney for the local office of the American Civil Liberties Union. A MANA spokeswoman said the award goes to “Latina women who inspire and open doors of opportunity.”

Both Bashaw and Jurado are graduates of Western State University College of Law in Fullerton.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com