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Jill Ravitch, right, is hugged by attorney Irma Cordova of Santa Rosa as supporter Susan Moore, left, celebrate Ravitch taking an early lead on Tuesday night in the district attorney's race. (KENT PORTER/PD)
By PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Jill Ravitch, a veteran North Coast prosecutor with a hard-nosed reputation, ousted two-term Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua to become the first woman to hold the office.
With all precincts reporting, Ravitch had 46,454 votes, or 54.1 percent. Passalacqua trailed with 39,146 votes, or 45.6 percent. In the 2006 election, Passalacqua won by just 1,700 votes, or about 1.5 percent.
“So far, the results are very promising,” Ravitch said over the din at her Santa Rosa election party attended by lawyers and judges. “I’m enthused by the incredible support reflected in the results.”
“And I’m having a wonderful birthday,” added Ravitch, who turned 52 on Election Day.
Passalacqua wasn’t ready to concede defeat. He said a significant number of permanent absentee ballots had yet to be counted. The vote wasn’t final in the first matchup for two weeks.
“It’s been a long and tough campaign,” he said from the Villa Restaurant in Santa Rosa, where he gathered with well-wishers. “It’s not over until it’s over.”
Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua checks election results Tuesday at the Villa Restaurant in Santa Rosa. In the bottom of photo is Angie Hand, a retired dispatcher with the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department. (KENT PORTER/PD)
Tuesday’s vote brought to an end a lively and often acrimonious campaign.
Ravitch, who won endorsements from police unions and most of the legal community, was accused by Passalacqua of job-hopping and making “sweetheart deals” with defense lawyers.
Ravitch attacked Passalacqua’s conviction rate as among the lowest in the state and said he put politics first in decision making.
Voters leaving the polls said the confidence Ravitch had inspired in legal circles won their votes, and they said a perception that Passalacqua played dirty politics didn’t help.
“I think she’s a lot tougher than he wanted people to believe,” Paula Palmer, a Santa Rosa secretary, said as she left a polling place on Humboldt Street in Santa Rosa. “And he was dishonest. I felt like he was trying to pull a fast one.”
Ravitch, a Sebastopol resident, has spent nearly her entire career as a prosecutor. After a brief stint with the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, she joined the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office in 1989 and quickly established herself as a top trial attorney.
Ravitch racked up a string of convictions over 15 years and supported her co-worker, Passalacqua, when he ran against then-District Attorney Mike Mullins in 2002.
But she became disenchanted with Passalacqua’s management style and quit for private practice in 2004. She tried her hand at criminal defense and civil law before challenging Passalacqua’s re-election in 2006.
She joined the race late, was criticized for her lack of management experience and was defeated. Passalacqua, 47, part of a prominent Healdsburg legal family, outspent her nearly 3-to-1.
In 2008, Ravitch returned to her prosecutor roots, accepting a supervisory position with the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office. As third-in-command, she managed 15 deputies and oversaw prosecution of violent crimes.
Last August, Ravitch announced she would make another bid for Passalacqua’s job. Touting her recently gained management experience, she won endorsements from Sheriff Bill Cogbill, unions for sheriff’s deputies and Santa Rosa police officers and the Santa Rosa City Council.
Ravitch and Passalacqua squared off in heated public debate. Passalacqua tried to paint Ravitch as being too close to defense attorneys, a charge she denied.
Ravitch countered that Passalacqua was operating with a bloated management staff, unhappy deputies and was failing to convict criminals.
She cited figures from the state Attorney General’s Office that put Sonoma County’s conviction rate among the 10 lowest counties for five of Passalacqua’s eight years.
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I copied and pasted Nina’s post about needing a shake down in the DA’s office. I liked it. Some of the dads at my nieces’ school have talked about their questionable behavior (the league of Legally Blonds)–they even partied with them. It has been described: alcohol from the night before oozes out of their pores.
I wholeheartedly support a shake down in the DA’s office. It’s embarrassing that the league of Junior DAs (aka the League of Legally Blonds)have paraded themselves around the county pretending to be “The Special Forces”(aka The Special Homicide Dept) partying wildly with their LE counterparts. Who are these people, where do they come from, and HOW were they ever qualified to perform these positions. What a joke!
Good luck cops and defense attorneys. You asked for it your gonna get it. I say with my hands rubbing together teehee.
I can’t wait.
By the way lots of deputy sheriff’s and santa rosa PD officers have been prosecuted and convicted of crimes. Almost all quietly pled their cases and went away, a few took it to trial like Sheriff Deputy Marcus Parker and his fraud on the DMV; the corrupt Sheriff helicopter pilot and the Sheriff Command staff’s lame attempt to cover it up, oh yes they keep the helicopter despite wasting tax payer dollars to play cowboys and shoot illegal weapons on County time.
The PD never reported these and many many others, why?
Karla Gonzales: You are either extremely naive or just grossly misinformed; talk about being bamboozled. There have been over 100 people plucked out of prison so far, some from DEATH ROW who were completely innocent, the vast majority of who did not take the stand. Not all innocent people take the stand Karla, there is hundreds of reasons not to, many center around overzealous and prejudiced prosecutors who are predators looking for people who are easily flustered, tongue-tied and not as astute as perhaps yourself. There’s no BS, no party line, it is what it is. Unfortunately, it seems, you are a believer; you believe that the police never lie, evidence is never fabricated or fudged and prosecutors are the unerring fighters for these mythical “victim’s rights” that don’t exist. Our Constitution is devoted mostly to granting, outlying and protecting the rights of the accused at trial and you intend to unseat that through your immoral adulteration of the judicial process. Two things we reap from your diatribe on here:
1) You have never been in any serious trouble yet, so your reactions and grandstanding about how you would or wouldn’t take the stand is purely speculative at best;
2) You are a believer in the shiny blue badge; you have never seen or examined the seedy underbelly that is our law enforcement community because you think it doesn’t exist. Sticking your fingers in your ears and saying “la, la, la, la” won’t make it go away Karla, you should wake up and do some research;
3) You believe that criminals have more rights than victims, here you are right, there is no such thing as victim’s rights, not a single line in our Constitution or a single law on the books grants any Constitutionally protected “victim’s rights”, so in a sense, criminals do have more rights than victims – Blame our Founding Fathers.
4) You think that criminals are all getting off and that they are all roaming our streets because some lawyer got them off, again, a legal rookie mistake that you have made here. Tonight there are more people in jail or prison in the US than in China, Russia, Cuba or any other country in the world – many more.
Not trying to change your mind Karla, that will take a felony arrest for drunk driving or something like that to jar you awake, just not wanting you to look quite so dumb.
BTW, I *love* that picture!
@ Lewis Myers Could you tell us about all those bad cops SP went after, because I don’t remember reading about it in the paper. Were cops tried and found guilty or fired?
@Samantha Garske It’s not the DA’s job to keep illegal immigrants off the streets. My understanding is it’s a misdemeanor. If we put all people guilty of a misdemeanor behind bars, there’d be precious few of us left, and the jails would be bulging even more than they are now.
How about lobbying our elected officials to persecute those who hire the undocumented? How’s that for a novel approach? Here’s a clue, what we’re doing now isn’t working, you know, like denying people licenses.
karla gonzales, you are ignorant regarding reasons that defendants may choose not to testify. making a statement such as ” remember women…when you sit on a jury and the defendant does not testify, they’re guilty”. Prejudice does not belong in the courtroom. your attitude is not conducive to serving justice.
Congradulations to Jill! She has earned this moment. May her inspiration be respect and love of the law and justice for all.
Congratulations to Ms.Ravich and indeed, all of Sonoma County!
….the end of corruption in the D.A’s is now possible!
Congrats to all of Sonoma County voters who saw through the slimy tactics and chose the right person for the job.
And congrats to our new D.A., Jill Ravitch. Please do your best to keep criminals, including illegal aliens, off of our streets and out of our neighborhoods.
*pictures Passalacqua carrying out the packed up box he so lamely sent out to us voters with Ms. Ravitch’s image accusing her of being a quitter* Ha. Karma kicked your butt, dude.
Goodbye, Mr. Self Interest. I do not believe you will be missed.
Well Stacy I don’t want anybody on the jury that doesn’t want to be there. If you want to get out of it, do as I advise and you’re free. It’s people like Stacy who somehow want to ram their beliefs and “principles” on everyone else that are causing the problems. If I was on trial and falsely accused, I, like any innocent person, would not hesitate to testify and say so on the witness stand.
The reasons criminals roam free is because people like Stacy can’t see the obvious. It will take some common sense juries to convict even obviously guilty people. Too many people are bamboozled by the system. The criminals take advantage of this tendency. Why can’t the good people? I’m just posting a tip that anyone can remember and apply easily to defeat the strong forces of crime that screw up everyone’s life in Sonoma County.
Ravich is going to be putting a lot of bad guys on trial for some bad stuff. The regular citizen is used to television courtrooms and television police characters and television evidence. That stuff isn’t real.
Sift through all the BS with my simple tip. No DA will ever EVER be able to say this kind of stuff. There are a million people like “Stacy” telling you the standard party line of democracy and duty and all the shiny objects that distract most people. It’s bull.
The bad guys are easy to spot. Put them away. A reasonable doubt is a doubt based upon reason. But as soon as a jury hears repeatedly “beyond ALL reasonable doubt” they get confused. Don’t be among this herd. Use common sense.
I’m pretty confident that Ravich is not going to be railroading innocent people into jury trials, okay? All you old fogies out there reading this should wise up to the Stacys in this world just think for yourself if you find yourself on a jury.
Karla, you say that “a defendant who doesn’t testify is guilty.” You obviously do not understand constitutional rights. Does that mean a suspect who invokes his right to not talk to police is guilty?
You have not studied and loved the law as I have. There is a myriad of reasons that one might not testify as a defendant–particularly if the People did not mount a credible case and meet the burden of proof. Or if the defendant may have a past that would be open to questioning if he testifies.
I truly hope you never serve on a criminal jury…and I hope you never wind up in the defendant’s chair.
somebody still owes mr. andrian an apology. congratulations jill!
Karla – You state ” Let’s get these criminals before a jury and put them away,” and yet you’re offering advice on how to get out of jury duty. Serving on a jury is an important part of the legal process, and we should all do our part when called. Yes, it is a pain in the butt taking time out of our lives for it, but don’t complain about letting criminals go if you aren’t willing to sit on a jury. And your attitude towards Defendants who don’t take the stand is ignorant. I hope you never find yourself on the wrong side of the law as an innocent person… but on the other hand, it sounds like you might be that person that gets up on the stand to defend herself and ends up crucifying herself.
Jill Ravitch has 2 whole years of “managment” experience, and a history of cutting deals with defense lawyers. She won favor of the law enforcement circles because Stephan Passalacqua would go after bad cops as hard as he went after bad guys. You are not an effective DA by being everyone’s friend, you are an effective DA by putting bad guys in Jail. Stephan Passalacqua Did that, and today is not a good day in Sonoma County.
Congratulations Jill – hard fought, and the better person won. I can think of numerous positive adjectives to say right now but we will leave it at that. Thank You Sonoma voters for this time around making the right choice. You won’t be sorry!
What a great Birthday Present For You Jill!
Sonoma County made the right choice. Passalacqua’s negative campaign cut five points off Ravich’s lead. I have to thank the women of Sonoma County for turning out and voting. It made all the difference.
Remember women… when you sit on a jury and the defendant does not testify, they’re guilty. No matter what they say in court about not holding that against someone, there’s just no way an innocent person falsely accused would not take the stand and say “I didn’t do it.”
If you don’t want to serve on jury duty, just insist you can’t have an open mind and that you think the defendant is guilty just by looking at him. No matter what they say, keep insisting you think he’s guilty and you can’t set those feelings aside.
Let’s get these criminals before a jury and put them away. No sweetheart plea bargains. Take the slam dunk cases and go to trial anyway and show Sonoma County what good work the police have been and are doing catching the criminals. Plead out the weak cases only, not the strong ones.
This way the worst of the worst will get the long sentences and keep your community safer. It’s just a tiny fraction of people causing most of the crime. We’ve got to have smart jurors sitting on these trials. The prosecutors need to stop sleepwalking through trials and bring some of Ravich’s fire into the courtroom.
This will make the prosecutors, the police, the jury, and the public happy. The people can take control of the criminals. Screw them. Don’t listen to the BS. Use some common sense.
We are thrilled that JUSTICE prevailed today. Last week Stephan put on his case to the voters just as he does systematically to the juries in Sonoma County Courts. Same style, same lies, and same unethical conduct. However, this time the Jury didn’t buy his accusations and they came in with their own verdict. The message was overwhelming. Stephan, it is time to pack your cardboard box and head out of town. If others in the office want to continue to operate in this fashion, pack your boxes too. The voters are tired of this garbage and it is time that we take back our justice system in Sonoma County- OH HAPPY DAY!!!!!!!!
Congratulations!
Congratulations to the voters of Sonoma County. Mr. Passalacqua, you ran a slimy campaign and the voters looked past it. Doctored photographs and lies do not a district attorney make.