Contra Costa county supervisors break barriers in selecting new district attorney
MARTINEZ >> Three months after Contra Costa’s district attorney resigned in disgrace, county supervisors have selected his replacement: retired Superior Court Judge Diana Becton.
Becton, when she’s sworn in later this month, will be the first African-American and first woman to hold the office in its roughly 160-year history. Becton came under fire after she admitted plagiarizing parts of her application, though she also received vocal community support, especially in Richmond, where she’s been involved in criminal justice issues outside of her work for years.
“I’m grateful that the Board of Supervisors has put their trust in me, and I’m grateful to all the people who’ve come out to support me,” Becton said after the decision. “I will work and do my best to serve the people of Contra Costa County in a way that treats everyone fairly.”
She declined to comment further.
Supervisors had been seeking an interim replacement for former DA Mark Peterson since he resigned in June. The same day of his resignation, Peterson was charged with grand theft and 12 counts of perjury for illegally spending $66,000 in campaign cash on personal expenses. He pleaded no contest to perjury and was sentenced to three years probation.
A dozen applicants sought to replace him, and supervisors had narrowed the field to five: Becton, who retired as a judge on Aug. 14; senior Contra Costa deputy district attorney Paul Graves; Contra Costa assistant district attorney Tom Kensok; Santa Clara County supervising district attorney Patrick Vanier; and Judge Danielle Douglas.
The five attended several community forums, where they were questioned on criminal justice reform issues.
On Tuesday, supervisors appeared split between Graves and Becton, with John Gioia and Diane Burgis voicing support for Becton and Candace Anderson and Karen Mitchoff supporting Graves, who had received widespread support from police and prosecutors in the county. It came down to Federal Glover.
“I heard the need for change, a voice that was much different from those we’ve heard in the past,” Glover said, before indicating his support for Becton.
Becton, in her remarks before Tuesday’s vote, had spoken about bail reform, reducing recidivism, bridging gaps between law enforcement and folks in the community who are distrustful of police, and serving as an example to help minority communities feel less disenfranchised. Several community activists who work in the county’s racial justice coalition and other communitybased groups have spoken on her behalf.
Deputy district attorney Aron DeFerrari — the president of the prosecutors union that endorsed Graves — appeared dejected after the decision, and read a brief statement saying attorneys were ready to work with Becton to keep the community safe until voters elect a permanent replacement.
Becton’s interim term is scheduled to end in January 2019. Assuming she chooses to run for election in June 2018, she already has two opponents; both Graves and Vanier have declared they’re running for DA next year.
During public comment Tuesday, Contra Costa Sheriff David Livingston asked supervisors point-blank not to consider either Becton or Kensok, who both admitted to copying and pasting sections of their written application without attribution. Becton copied and pasted at least eight sections of other peoples’ work, including an op-ed co-authored by California’s U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, a Democrat, without attribution.
“Any applicant to the county who conducted themselves that way would be removed from the process of selection,” Livingston said. “It’s offensive to the process, and it’s offensive to law enforcement.”
Livingston’s remarks were met with hisses and boos. The next speaker, Richmond Cease Fire coordinator Darnell Jones, turned to Livingston and said, “I’m not going to let someone who helped destroy our communities talk about one of my sisters.” His remarks were met with hearty applause.
Becton addressed her plagiarism during her statement, saying she wasn’t trying to deceive anyone into thinking the work was hers, and that she’d spoken to one of Harris’ staff members who assured her Harris didn’t mind that she’d used her work. Becton admitted, though, that she should have used quotation marks.
“I own that mistake. I won’t hide from it,” Becton said.
Earlier in her remarks, she criticized the culture of the DA’s office, saying that if you have a situation “where people will get away with little things, it lowers the standards for everyone.”