Tomorrow the fate of our Republic is in your hands—no pressure or anything! But while most of our attention is turned to the federal races, let's not forget the local positions that matter. One of those is your local prosecutor.
Almost 1,000 prosecutors across America are up for election tomorrow, and many of these races matter a lot. The three biggest races, though, are in Tampa (Hillsborough County), Phoenix (Maricopa County), and Houston (Harris County). In all three of these races, the incumbent Republicans are fighting hard to keep their job. The current head prosecutors in these places—Devon Anderson in Harris County, TX; Bill Montgomery in Maricopa County, AZ; and Mark Ober in Hillsborough County, FL—have perpetuated ineffective policies that result in excessive criminalization, while ignoring more serious crimes.
Here's why you shouldn't support them.
Bill Montgomery in Maricopa County, Arizona
- Fighting to maintain racially-biased marijuana prohibition
As we previously reported, Montgomery is engaging in a ridiculous campaign to prevent marijuana legalization, and he's resorting to crazy scare tactics and personal insults. Montgomery literally called a Vietnam veteran "the enemy" to his face, because he said he used marijuana to deal with his PTSD. (Medical marijuana is legal in Arizona.) Turns out, Montgomery has a financial incentive to keep punishing low-level drug offenders.
- Sentences more people to death more often than 99.5 percent of counties
Maricopa County sentences people to death more often than 99.5 percent of other counties or county-equivalents. Those cases come straight from Montgomery's office. For more, read our recent article on Montgomery and the death penalty.
- Tough on sex offenders—unless they're law enforcement
Montgomery likes to talk about how he's aggressively prosecuted sex offenders. After sentencing one guy to seven consecutive life sentences, Montgomery's office released a statement that said, “These sentences are long because we want to make sure that child sex predato’s never get to see another day of freedom.” That is, of course, unless the offender is in law enforcement. In the past five years, there have been at least 11 corrections officers charged with felonies for having sex or "sexual contact" with someone in the correctional system. Every single one of them has avoided jail time.
That includes at least one juvenile corrections officer, who was charged with having "sexual contact with a minor." The officer, a male, plead to a less serious charge and only got 10 years of probation. The victim was not consulted. What was that about never getting to see another day of freedom?
- Do these two women deserve the same sentence?
In 2012, a white woman named Catalina Clouser put her 2-month-old on the roof of her car in a car seat and promptly drove off. Clouser claimed she had forgotten that the child was on top of the car, and it took her 12 miles to realize that her baby was not in the backseat. It turned out that Clouser was high at the time of the incident and was in the middle of a big argument with her boyfriend. The baby, miraculously, was found safe. Clouser was charged with DUI and child abuse.
Two years later, a black woman named Shanesha Taylor was arrested and charged with felony child abuse in Maricopa County, Arizona. Why? She had left two of her children in a parked car while she interviewed for a job. Taylor was homeless, broke, and had four kids. She couldn't afford childcare. The kids were unharmed.
Both women eventually took plea deals. Clouser received 16 years of probation for accidentally driving off with her two-month-old kid on the roof of her car while she was high. Taylor received 18 years for leaving her kids in the car while she interviewed for a job.
- Five sentences overturned by the Supreme Court in one morning
Just last week the Supreme Court overturned five Maricopa County juvenile life without parole sentences in one morning. Read our story on it here.
- Supports Sheriff Joe’s Immigration policies
Montgomery has historically been very chummy with the Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio. (Arpaio is famous for being the nation's worst law enforcement officer, and has repeatedly been investigated and charged with corruption and illegal activity.) Montgomery has supported Sheriff Joe's anti-immigration crusades. Even though it's not the local prosecutor's job to enforce immigration—that's ICE's job—Montgomery has basically done it anyway.
When Sheriff Joe has raided workplaces looking for undocumented immigrants and arrested them, Montgomery has been supportive and charged those persons with identity theft. Montgomery has also stated that he supports "prosecuting migrants for conspiring with 'coyotes' to self-smuggle themselves into the country." This is a gross overreach by a prosecutor, and is a blatant abuse of the state's human smuggling law, which assumes two parties—the smuggler and the smuggled—and targets people who assist undocumented immigrants. By claiming conspiracy, Montgomery punishes migrants for essentially being both. Not only is that out of the boundaries of the law's conception, it's also essentially punishing migrants for being undocumented, which is explicitly not his job.
Devon Anderson in Harris County, Texas
- Excessive punishment of low-level drug offenders
Anderson has charged thousands with felony drug possession for having a "trace" amount of an illegal substance. That means possession of such a small amount of drugs that the quantity is literally too small to be measured. Many DAs choose not to prosecute these cases, but Anderson basically refused to stop. Anderson's insistence on prosecuting trace cases also indicates she doesn't prioritize racial justice, since those cases overwhelmingly hurt minorities and the poor.
- Encouraged unconstitutional bail practices
Harris County's court system has historically used a "rigid bond schedule" that keeps many people in jail simply because they can't afford to pay. County prosecutors have continued to put people in jail because they can’t afford bail, which has led to Harris County’s overcrowded jail.
An organization called Equal Justice Under the Law filed a lawsuit against the County in federal court, claiming that such a bail system is equivalent to a debtor's prison, which is unconstitutional. A few months before the lawsuit was filed, Anderson announced that she would be implementing some changes into the bail system after being pushed by her opponent. However, the schedule for implementation is unclear.
- Dozens of people wrongfully convicted
Harris County had more exonerations last year than anywhere else in the nation. Of the 149 exonerations nationwide, 43 were in Harris County. While one was for murder, most were for drug possession. That's because the office often charges people for drug possession for substances that end up not being drugs.
Many people that can't afford bail don't want to sit in jail while they wait for test results. In the past, those people have just gone ahead and pled guilty instead of waiting for drug test results to come back. There are a high number of exonerations because many of those people end up being innocent.
In order to avoid such high exoneration numbers, Anderson has banned guilty pleas made before testing is completed. But this is still problematic for those arrested for possession who can't afford bail, since the county testing facilities tend to have long backlogs. Meanwhile, defendants have to sit in jail while they wait for their trace amounts of drugs to be tested. All of this to prosecute a drug possession case for a quantity so small it can't even be measured, even though in most other jurisdictions, such a small amount of drugs isn't even a felony at all.
- Jailed a traumatized rape victim
We recently covered Anderson's decision to jail a mentally ill rape victim to ensure that she testified in court. The victim ended up being subject to physical and mental abuse while jailed. Anderson always claims that she puts victims first, but her actions in this case demonstrate otherwise.
- Supported putting friends and donors on grand juries
There's long been a terrible grand jury system in Harris County. Anderson was neutral for a long time on key-man juries, where basically friends and donors and even active policemen were asked to be on juries to ensure that the result went down the way the district attorney's office preferred. Anderson remarkably defended this system until she was pushed by her opponent, Kim Ogg.
- Covered up the destruction of 21,000 pieces of evidence
We recently covered the story of Anderson’s failure to disclose that 21,000 pieces of evidence had been destroyed at a local police precinct. She didn’t tell the public, defendants, defense attorneys, or even other prosecutors in her office. It’s another example of her office’s staggering lack of transparency.
- Blamed a sheriff’s death on Black Lives Matter
Anderson blamed the Black Lives Matter movement for the shooting of a Sheriff's Deputy last year. “It is time for the silent majority in this country to support law enforcement.” She added, “There are a few bad apples in every profession.” Anderson continued, “But that does not mean that there should be open warfare declared on law enforcement.” It turned out the killer was mentally ill and had no connection to any political or social movement.
- Has repeatedly protected crooked cops
One cop, Sgt. Ryan Chandler, completely failed to investigate more than a dozen murders in the county. At the time, he was engaged to an assistant DA in Anderson's office who ended up sending Chandler internal files about his possible prosecution. He faced no prosecution in Harris County. Eventually, a judge recommended that his case be prosecuted in Montgomery County, instead, to avoid the appearance (or existence) of impropriety.
But the district attorney in Montgomery County was Brett Ligon, who "for years was head of legal services at the Houston Police Officers' Union." Ligon was also married to someone in the Harris County District Attorney's office—the lawyer in charge of Anderson's conviction integrity unit. What's more, the order to transfer the case and other critical court documents were sealed, meaning that there was no chance for the public to ensure that Chandler was held accountable.
- Referenced her opponent’s sexuality in attempt to appeal to voters
As we recently covered, Anderson brought up the fact that her opponent, Democrat Kim Ogg, is a lesbian during a radio interview in an attempt to appeal to right-wing voters.
Mark Ober in Hillsborough County, Florida
- More death penalty sentences than 99 percent of prosecutors
Hillsborough County sentenced five people to death between 2010 and 2015, more than 99 percent of prosecutors in the country. Last year, the county had more cases than any other county in the state. The Fair Punishment Project reported that 50 percent of those sentenced in Hillsborough have suffered from mental illness, 67 percent have been people of color, and 60 percent were sentenced by non-unanimous juries, a practice that the state Supreme Court recently found unconstitutional in a landmark decision.
- Tough on low-level marijuana possession cases
Ober has done his fair share of fear mongering regarding marijuana possession, and has fought efforts to decriminalize the drug. Hillsborough was the very last county in the state to allow juvenile marijuana possession to be resolved with a civil citation instead of charged as a crime. Think Progress reported recently that "[u]nder his leadership, black people are 3.8 times more likely to do time in jail than white people, and marijuana possession plays a big role in landing them behind bars." And apparently the office's assistant prosecutors aren't even taught about diversion programs, so defendants end up serving time even when they don't have to.
- Charged a 57-year-old disabled mother with shoplifting, despite evidence she was innocent
As we covered last week, prosecutors in Ober's office charged a woman with shoplifting, despite video evidence that proved she was innocent and had been framed. Prosecutors regardless insisted on taking the woman to trial. The jury deliberated less than sixty seconds before returning with a not guilty verdict.
- Failed to focus enough attention on crimes against women, such as rape and domestic violence
Ober is too busy nailing low-level drug offenders and disabled mothers to address more serious crimes, such as rape and domestic violence. He has been criticized by victims for not taking sexual assault and domestic abuse seriously enough. The evidence is there—domestic violence homicides nearly doubled in Hillsborough between 2014 and 2015. And more generally, domestic abuse crimes went up as well, even though they went down statewide. What's more, the county still has more than 500 untested rape kits.
- Partly blamed an underage victim for her sexual assault
Alex Pelzer, a 26-year-old local musician, forced a 15-year-old Tampa girl to be his sex slave and physically abused her. They had been communicating since the girl was 12. However, initially Ober was not going to pursue charges against Pelzer.
At a recent candidate forum, Ober's opponent, former federal prosecutor Andrew Warren, criticized Ober for his initial decision. "She was with him voluntarily. She flew to see him,” Ober replied according to the Huffington Post. “And consent is not an issue. … We differ on — I know the facts of the case.”
In response, the victim wrote Ober a letter that was published on the Huffington Post:
"The fact is Mr. Ober, that as a result of my time with you and your administration I have felt judged, ridiculed, blamed, dismissed, and uncared for time and time again. I have had people look at me and say that I gave consent in a scenario where consent could not be given. I have been asked more times if I “enjoyed it” than the amount of times I was asked of how it hurt. I have spent months living in fear of my case again being swept under the rug, and that the trauma of reporting through this system would have all been a waste. Because despite you saying you “know the facts” and that you now acknowledge a crime was committed, you closed my case. You closed my case and said there were no charges to be pressed, and that there was nothing that could be done for me.
The sad truth is, Mr. Ober, that after my experience with you, if I were ever assaulted, raped, or anything of the nature again and you were still my State Attorney, I would not report it. Because I have felt more exploited through the experience of having you as my only outlet to justice than I had in the entire time of the crime that brought me to your door in the first place.