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By SAM SCOTT
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Marin County’s District Attorney has appointed a veteran of the office to take over from Sonoma County the controversial investigation and prosecution of the teenager accused in a fatal Cloverdale hit-and-run last month.
Murat Ozgur, an attorney in Monterey and Contra Costa counties before arriving in Marin in 2004, will serve as special deputy attorney general for the case, said Barry Borden, Marin County Chief Deputy District Attorney.
“Mr. Ozgur is a very experienced attorney,” Borden said. “He’s done just about everything in the office. He’s handled homicide cases, misdemeanor cases, felony cases, juvenile cases.”
It was unclear, however, whether Ozgur would have the authority to seek to overturn the reported settlement at the core of the case. Borden said the request from Sonoma County was made Friday and Marin officials were waiting Monday for the case file to arrive.
“Then we’ll have a better understanding of what the status of the case is, what needs to be done if anything, and what legal remedies we may or may not have,” Borden said.
Miguel Sanchez
The case was referred to Marin at the request of Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch who took office Jan 3., a week after Miguel Sanchez, 83, was struck crossing a Cloverdale Street. Mitch Carlson, 17, of Cloverdale was arrested later that day at Cloverdale High School in connection with the hit-and-run.
By the time Sanchez died four days later, the case had reportedly already been settled despite no completed police report or notification of the victim’s family as required by Marsy’s Law. Carlson was soon back in school and, according to a prosecutor, likely faces probation and community service at his sentencing, now scheduled in juvenile court Feb. 2.
Juvenile proceedings are handled in virtual secrecy and there is no public record of the results or who participated.
The handling of the case and speed of the settlement fueled the Sanchez family’s outrage and raised questions about special treatment of the case.
The crash and court proceeding occurred during the final week of outgoing District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua’s eight-year tenure in office. He lost to Ravitch in June.
Passalacqua issued a written statement last week decrying the handling of the case and denying any involvement in it. His brother Joe Passalacqua, who is Carlson’s attorney, has denied any special treatment in the disposition of the case.
The timing of the events, however, contributed to Ravitch’s decision to ask her counterpart in Marin County to take over, Assistant Sonoma County District Attorney Christine Cook said Monday. Such requests to neighboring counties — done under the auspices of the state Attorney General’s office — are common for cases involving apparent conflicts, Cook said.
“The priority was really to maintain the integrity of the process and the appearance of it,” Cook said.
All prosecutorial and investigative aspects of the criminal case will be handled by the Marin County District Attorney’s Office.
Ravitch, who was at a statewide district attorney’s conference in Southern California on Monday, is performing an internal administrative review of the case and of office policies, Cook said. She was not available for comment.
Ravitch did not return repeated calls over three days last week seeking the identify of the deputy district attorney involved in the Carlson case. On Monday, Cook also declined to name the deputy district attorney in charge of the case, citing the pending administrative review.
“When the review is complete and any appropriate action is taken I am sure the district attorney will share any information at that point which is appropriate to share,” she said.
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The Blue Wall is a perfect description! It is alive and growing, with Jill Ravitch at the head! just spend on morning in the court rooms and the injustice will be eye opening! I am thankful for the excellent reporting being done about the Blue Walls corruption!
At the very least I hope the kid at the center of this is peeing his pants reading all the comments on all the articles. The anxiety and worry over what’s going to happen is probably the only punishment he’ll get.
I kind of would like to hear what his parents have to say about all this. I still firmly believe that the juvenile justice system should be able to place some of the consequences on the parents. Nothing motivates parents more than taking money from them every time one of their little darlings screws up.
I mean really, they can fine me if my dog takes a poo in the park or isn’t on a leash but if my son kills someone there’s nothing they can do to the parents?
It’s the same with all the supposed efforts to stop the bullies in school. The apple does not fall far from the tree. There has to be some punishment directed at the parents. That at least has some hope of changing things. What kind of message is sent by punishing a kid who killed someone and then casually went to basketball practice with a little probation and a clean record when it’s all over?
At least kick this up to adult court or something. The thing is, there are numerous outrages to justice the Press Democrat never reports almost every day.
And all the blame shifting. Think of all the conventions and leadership seminars the County paid for and paid Passalacqua to attend to improve himself. Is there any management book or leadership seminar that says it’s okay to just shift the blame to underlings carrying out your decisions?
On the most basic level and at all levels what happened here is an outrage. But as I’ve said before… if only the public knew how common these kinds of outrages to justice really are, they’d demand changes.
How about an “Outrageous Plea Bargain of the Week” column by our beat reporter in the courthouse? I mean someone is convicted of rape and gets punished for tailgating, that sort of thing. If the Press Democrat hammered away at it week after week after week, things would change. Some of these outrages make good news stories. Instead of manufacturing controversy you could actually report real controversial facts that happen day in and day out and do some good.
But I digress…
Coral is right. IF there was a sweetheart deal there should be consequences. But there won’t. It’s been established that DA ravitch’s right hand man Bud McMahon, who was promoted to Chief Deputy DA on Ravitch’s first day in office, was involved in this fiasco. He was the head of the juvenile division, he told the police to stop investigating and to not waste their time and he was quoted in the PD as saying the minor plead and there is nothing else to do with the case.
Obviously he doesn’t know the law. Once the guy died they can go back and file manslaughter charges. Isn’t that why marin county is looking at the case. Check out the law yourself. The bigger question is how can chief deputy Bud McMahon not know this? And why would he absolutely misstated the law in a newspaper interview.
Why is nobody asking chief deputy DA Joan Risse what happened. She was overseeing juvenile and the now defunct homicide team when all this happened. Surely she was informed of what her divisions were doing.
This seems like a political farce being played out by the new DA to make her old nemesis look bad. She knew if she baited the hook the public would bite. The old DA was just too easy of a target. Who’ next.
Yes, The Blue Wall, is alive and well among Sonoma County’s Law Enforcement. I hope Jill can penetrate it. Calling the Attorney General’s office was a start, but out and out declaring corruption in Passalacqua’s handling of cases would be better—-have them come in and look at a number of cases. I just hope there’s not a Blue Wall among DAs offices as well.
I really want to know what relationship/friendship kindled this fire-sale on justice. I can hardly wait for those Headlines, and I do expect Headlines P D
This is a monumental display of unethical and unforgivable behavior by the officials involved. Name every deputy District attrny., and prosecutor involved in this atrocity. The officials involved should be FIRED on the spot. Then they should stand and be publicly exposed and punished accordingly. It is not just the young man who hit and ran that has behaved criminally here.
When an innocent person is killed, many emotions and thoughts are immediately invoked and formed by the details of the case. Now attending basketball practice after being involved in a hit and run, that led to an innocent persons death, that would be extreme, and would lead to and allow for many assumptions. I,m not here to label anyone with medical terminology, but I will say, there is much to be said about self responsibility.
Since 2003 there has been roughly 47,000 pedestrians struck and killed in America. 1 in 5 are a hit and run. Roughly 10,000.
At what point do we call out for responsibility to be had. Do we wait til 20,000? 100,000? . Accidents happen, but to run is a choice. To carry on with their life as if nothing has happened, is a choice.
I have decided to defend one who can no longer defend himself, and for that I can handle 1000 “thumbs down”, as long as in the end, justice is found.
//The assumption that any youth who is involved with a hit and run accident must be a sociopath is a bit extreme.//
Sociopath: “Unconcerned about the adverse consequences for others of one’s actions.”
What would you call someone who hits a pedestrian with their car and then, rather than seek assistance for the victim, flees the scene of the accident?
Drew you need to actually read the comment. It is a general reference to the kind of juvenile criminal being generated in the society of today.
I’m sure you disagree with my comments on other topics and automatically dismiss any comment I make, but, you did misinterpret that particular comment and misrepresent it.
Look at this case. The kid kills someone and his excuse is he was scared so he fled and just went to basketball practice. I don’t know if he is a sociopath, but it seems to quack like that duck, doesn’t it?
I am appalled by some of the comments on this article and the number of people who gave thumbs up for the comments made by Wellington. It speaks grandly about those who read the PD. The assumption that any youth who is involved with a hit and run accident must be a sociopath is a bit extreme.
As tragic as the event is, the death of Miguel Sanchez, it seems to have taken this tragedy to open the eyes of everyone to what issues were present then, and are present now.
It is our believe here at “Justice for Kody Quinn Williams” that the system needs to be fixed, not just for the sake of the victims and the justice that is due them, but that the criminal without a shadow of a doubt,receives the punishment that they are deserving of. It is time to speak loudly for the victims. As they no longer have that voice.
What still amazes me, is that Passalaqua still is in denial of his inappropriate actions, and is proving he is hiding behind his name (or hiding behind his door)since he can no longer use his reputation to stand behind…
True shame someone appointed to this county, to protect and to see that citizens are treated fairly, voted in by the citizens, failed so horribly, and then does not have the guts to publicly stand up and say yeah I screwed up. In his delusional world he probably dosent see anything wrong in how he handled things.
Only the judge can set aside the agreement unless both sides agree to do so voluntarily. Any why would the defendant agree to set aside a sweetheart deal?
In spite of the posturing, at this point only the judge can make a difference here. In criminal court that is.
I don’t expect that much will change as far as punishment goes. It’s just the nature of juvenile proceedings. The system was designed in the days of Dragnet and Adam-12. Juvenile criminals today are hard core sociopaths that such a system could not have envisioned when it was conceived.
Sonoma County has had cases of violent juveniles killing people over some “disrespectful look” let alone a non-malicious hit and run. And the highest possible punishment in the juvenile system is to put the kid in CYA until age 25. The kid could be a hired assassin and the juvenile system could only lock him up until age 25. And even after that, the record is sealed too and the juvenile emerges with no criminal record.
People don’t generally realize this. I don’t anticipate our elected leadership will miraculously become competent and change the juvenile system to keep up with the times.
This entire matter would have not been a public issue had Passalacqua not been peering so intently into the fountain to the point of falling in. Had he just sat down with the victim’s family and explained everything and apologized for the failings of the juvenile system and expressed a little sympathy without media fanfare – there’s no issue. He could have been completely honest about it.
But Passalacqua is no Pete Rose running full speed on a ground ball when his team is down by 10 runs in the 9th inning. Passalacqua sleep walked through his last lame duck days. That’s what caused this issue.
Every day just about anyone can sit in just about any Sonoma County court and be outraged again and again by the lack of any punishment for serious crimes until and unless it gets really serious. Look at Richard Allen Davis? How much more serious a criminal can there be? Yet he’s been on death row longer than Polly Klass’ entire life. How long a criminal history can a person have and still be free?
Outrages in the justice system are common. We can’t build subterranean prisons to warehouse everyone who should be locked up. I still pin most of the responsibility on the parents who create these monsters.
Has anyone noticed that the statistical drop in crime that all these FBI people and police chiefs are trying to take credit for began 18 years after abortion became legal in the US?
But I digress…
Murat Ozgur, will have his hands full. This will be interesting.