Concerns Grow Regarding District Attorney's Office

An assistant district attorney’s missed deadlines in the Baby Favi case made headlines. That same fortnight, I read of three more missed deadlines, one by the same ADA. Not good.

That ADA has left, after many years with the Third Judicial District Attorney’s DA’s office. Everyone says he was a good, conscientious attorney. His resignation letter said he just couldn’t stand having such a heavy caseload that he couldn’t do his work properly. “I was shocked, given his deep commitment to the office,” a defense attorney said.

Few Las Crucens choose to move to Alamogordo, Deming, or Carlsbad. (Silver City, maybe.) A dozen ADAs from here are now ADAs in those towns. Some live here, commuting long hours. Why? Not because they love audio books.

Former ADAs, defense counsel, and folks in law enforcement, or other positions dealing regularly with our DA’s Office, are worried. Many say the DA’s Office is so understaffed that it endangers timely, competent prosecution of cases. (The Attorney-General’s Office is aware of local concern.) City detectives are taking a higher percentage of misdemeanor cases to the City Attorney’s Office for filing in Municipal Court. The Sheriff’s Department no longer runs as many arrest warrants or search warrants past the DA, saying response times aren’t quick enough. (Third Judicial District Attorney Gerald Byers says DASO has “our on-call number and my cell-phone.”)

Defense counsel complain that management won’t let ADAs make basic decisions on plea bargains. That means cases drag along, victims get no closure, and defendants wait longer in jail. Byers, whom we elected in 2020, says he tightened things up because each plea agreement goes out over his signature, and younger attorneys miss things – and don’t know what they don’t know.

There are just two deputies (plus Byers) with experience trying major felonies. Byers says there are two more on the way, new hires with extensive experience in other states, awaiting New Mexico licenses.

Critics emphasize turnover. Both former ADAs and defense counsel say some cases have had six or seven attorneys in charge of them over a few years. One defense lawyer said, “What’s really shocking is, I start talking to someone and before I know it, he’s gone, or she’s gone.” One source said several young lawyers “who would have become really good prosecutors” left, partly for lack of mentoring. Byers says he has increased training and has weekly meetings to improve communications.

Morale is reportedly poor. Three women recently received settlements based on alleged mistreatment by Byers when he was chief deputy. That also sparked an effort to unionize, rare among lawyers. (Byers stresses that he treats everyone the same. My guess is that his conflict with the younger lawyers was largely generational.) To everyone’s surprise, Chief Deputy A.J. Salazar was fired recently. He’s served formal notice he may sue. Byers, of course, could not discuss specific personnel.

“I remember when I was the little guy, and I try to treat people with respect, and stand up for people. I tell lawyers, “Don’t say it to your secretary if you wouldn’t say it to a judge,” Byers said.

Byers had responses to each allegation; but because people avoid saying to his face what they say to others, he’s unaware of the extensive criticism. He’s smart and experienced. My hope is that whatever has happened, and whoever bears how much fault, Byers takes these concerns seriously and improves matters ASAP.

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[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 26 September 2021, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and KTAL-LP. (101.5 FM – http://www.lccommunityradio.org/), and will presently be available on demand on KRWG’s site.]

[I kind of hated writing this column, because I know, like, and respect Gerald Byers. Still, the more folks I talked to, the less able I was to duck writing it.

The consistent themes repeated in so many conversations, most with people having firsthand knowledge, was compelling. Too, judges had forcefully expressed themselves in actions and written decisions.

In Mr. Byers’s defense: the pandemic has been a tough time for everyone; and the D.A.’s Office here had been weakened by partisan changes and other challenges for years. Under Susanna Martinez and Amy Orlando, the office allegedly charged people with unreasonably big offenses to bully them into plea bargains. Mark D’Antonio ran on plans to mix vigorous prosecution with consideration of treatment and other solutions other than prison, depending on circumstances. When he beat Orlando, she reportedly left files in disarray, and many of her people fled without giving Mark a chance. Mark, in turn, was a good lawyer with good intentions, but not the greatest manager in the world; an early on he trusted some people he perhaps ought not to have trusted. During much of D’Antonio’s second term, Gerald ran things; and perhaps the unionization efforts and lawsuits should have suggested that his management style didn’t sit well with a lot of young lawyers. Byers then ran unopposed.

Byers is steering the ship now. No outsider can distinguish with certainty whether a captain is restoring order after another captain’s lax discipline, and prudently cleaning house, or is wrongly firing good folks while running others off, intentionally or otherwise. But facts, plus hearing so many firsthand accounts, generated the opinions I expressed in the column. Regretfully. 

I hope it helps.  I know folks say to me things most of them haven't said to Mr. Byers.  Few want to irritate a powerful official.  (Most of the folks I spoke with had supported Mr. Byers's candidacy.  I hope he will read this as an effort to help him improve the office.] 

 

[These guys below, got nothing to do with any of this, but just wandered in to grab some grub and lighten my week, and this post:]