District Attorney Candidates Remain on the Attack

The two candidates in the runoff for Los Angeles County district attorney squared off Tuesday in yet another hostile debate, with the incumbent styling himself as a crime preventer and his challenger portraying himself as a corruption buster.

Their debate was characterized by sharp exchanges, including one over Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti’s acceptance of campaign contributions from the grandfather of a suspect who received a reduced sentence in a third-strike case.

Head Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who outpolled Garcetti in the first round of the election earlier this year, said the case was “a disaster in terms of public confidence.�

Garcetti responded that the case had been handled by career prosecutors who had not been influenced by any contributions. “I can’t allow Mr. Cooley to impugn the integrity of people in my office,� Garcetti said.

Cooley shot back, “I’m not impugning the career prosecutors. I’m impugning you.�

He was referring to the case of Brian John McMorrow, the grandson of a Garcetti contributor who received a 16-month prison term in a case that could have cost him life in prison.

That case was also an issue the last time Garcetti ran for reelection, in 1997, when he eked out a victory over a different subordinate. Garcetti is widely viewed as the underdog this time, having finished second to Cooley in the primary.

In touting his crime prevention accomplishments, Garcetti said he has become a leader in efforts to curb domestic violence. He said he was prompted by the discovery that his deputies were filing a domestic-violence murder case every five days. He measured progress by saying that now his deputies file a domestic-violence murder case once every 14 days.

Among the areas where the two expressed disagreement:

* Three strikes: Garcetti defended his policy of leaving plea bargains up to subordinates who believe that most of those charged with third strike offenses do not deserve life terms. Only 29% of those charged with three strikes are sent to prison for life, Garcetti said. Cooley said Garcetti’s policy has led to bizarre results, with some people whose third strikes were nonviolent, relatively minor offenses sent to prison for life while “double murderers are out playing golf.� The reference was to O.J. Simpson’s acquittal.

* The Rampart corruption scandal: Garcetti said he is determined to get to the bottom of it. Cooley accused the district attorney of tolerating an atmosphere conducive to corruption for too long. “Missing is prosecutorial oversight,� he said.

* Discontinuing the district attorney’s “rollout� program in which prosecutors traveled to the scenes of police shootings: Garcetti, who helped start the rollout team 20 years ago, said the program is “better than nothing but it’s not a panacea� to keep police in line because police can still hide evidence that makes them look bad. He said he canceled it reluctantly a few years ago in a budget crunch, then helped find the money to reinstate it.

Cooley accused Garcetti of poor priorities in not promptly reinstating the $1.4-million program after his budget was increased by $100 million. The rollout program, he said, sends a powerful message to police that they have to contend with independent oversight.

* The Belmont school fiasco: Cooley said Garcetti “failed at his job� in probing “this toxic Taj Mahal�--a $200-million, mostly built high school that the school board voted to abandon early this year after environmental experts warned that underground methane could result in an explosion.

The district attorney’s office is still reviewing allegations of excessive billing at Belmont, but declined to file criminal charges after examining a report by the school district’s inspector general that blamed nine district employees and several contractors for the false start.

Cooley said he would have used a grand jury to investigate those who are responsible and hold them accountable. But Garcetti countered: “Do you prosecute stupidity?� He said part of the district attorney’s job is to know when no crimes are committed and noted that, in the case of Belmont, federal and state prosecutors agreed that “there are no provable crimes here.�

Garcetti told the debate’s host, the San Fernando Valley Bar Assn., that voters had a clear choice between “a 21st century D.A.� who understands that his role is mutifaceted and someone who will just “sit on his tush�--by implication, Cooley.

Cooley countered that he would be far more aggressive than Garcetti in streamlining routine cases so that prosecutors would have more time to spend rooting out public corruption and going after crime syndicates.