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By PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Sonoma County’s district attorney said Friday she is transferring the investigation and prosecution of the teenager accused in the fatal Cloverdale hit-and-run crash to an independent counsel overseen by the state attorney general.
Jill Ravitch said in a written statement that the district attorney in Marin County will assign a prosecutor to the case at her request.
“The attorney will be appointed as a special deputy attorney general, and be supervised by the attorney general’s office,” she said in a three-paragraph statement released just before 5 p.m Friday.
The move follows her announcement earlier this week that her office would review the case involving the death of Miguel Sanchez, 83, who was struck on Dec. 27 as he crossed a Cloverdale street. Mitch Carlson, 17, of Cloverdale was later arrested in connection with the hit-and-run case.
The case was reportedly settled without a completed crash report while Sanchez lay severely injured in a hospital. He died from his injuries Dec. 31.
The Sanchez family lawyer, Melinda Guzman, said she was surprised to learn of the independent review but that it was welcome.
“It’s about time,” she said. “Someone needs to take this case seriously. There has been some major mishandling.”
Guzman said the family was not informed of the change. Earlier today, she said a Sonoma County prosecutor and an investigator were in Cloverdale, looking into the case.
“Is it that they found out something today?” Guzman said. “I don’t know.”
The crash and juvenile court case occurred during the final week of outgoing District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua’s term in office. Ravitch took office Jan. 3.
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“I hope the truth comes out. I’ll be the first to admit if I’m wrong.”
Pleasant Surprise,
Sounds like you already have.
WTF?! Good move on Ravitch’s part bringing The two other agencies. Everyone is judging the former DA based on the way they feel about him and dont care about FACTS.
The clown that trully dropped the ball is still in office and looks like a break dancer trying to shift blame. Sucks though when your quoted in the paper telling an agency they would be wasting their time. And it sucks when you are the unit supervisor and cant say you had nothing to do with it.
I hope the truth comes out. Ill be the first to admit if I’m wrong.
Another one for the Attorney General’s Office: What happened in the investigation of Albert Leday’s shooting death? This story went silent too. Did Little MR P clean that one up just before leaving office, as well? What does our local chapter of the ACLU say on that—–MR. P is not politicking with you anymore—–maybe you should start screaming NOW!! The Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputy Sgt. Mark Fuston, who on June 1st 2010 killed unarmed Albert Mike Leday Jr., 49, after a high speed chase, has been involved in three of the 11 officer-involved shootings that the sheriff’s office has recorded this decade-—2 of them fatal.
What of all the other cases where excessive force was used???????
Even more interesting is the decision Ravitch made to get outside assistance on this matter from the A G. Sounds like there are issues of trust within the halls of justice. Lets hope they release the name of “the prosecutor’ and investigator who are being hidden, and what excactly are they being protected from?. Ravitch did the right thing by asking for outside assistance. I hope it pays off in the name of justice.
To quote Graeme Wellington: “This is going to take a while to resolve”.
That is our feelings over here at “Justice For Kody Quinn Williams”. As it has been 702 days since Kody Williams was killed in a Hit and Run in Cloverdale, California Feb 19,2009. Hopefully for the Sanchez family proper resolution to these issues come quickly as Justice delayed is Justice denied.
I think it is time for the Press Democrat to push hard for answers in the Kody Williams killing, and maybe resolution can be found in his case, for his family, as well.
A Press Democrat editorial made this suggestion. It seems to make a lot of sense and is fair to both sides of the case. I’m very interested in seeing exactly how the judge rules here when it’s all said and done.
I don’t think they even let the press into the proceedings and all the lawyers can’t talk, so we’ll probably be getting the details from the victim’s family.
Has the Press Democrat tried to interview the suspect’s family? They’ve probably been told not to talk, but they can still choose not to if they wanted. Is someone working on a biography of the victim or some story about the suspect?
This is going to take a while to resolve.
So far, so good.