Feds honor Solano DA’s Office for crime-fighting collaboration
US Attorney's Office in Sacramento recognizes DA Abrams for Outstanding Local Prosecutor's Office for work on Project Safe Neighborhoods
Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams can hang another well- deserved honor in her office in the County Government Center in Fairfield.
The Department of Justice recently recognized the Solano DA’s Office, located in the Eastern District of California, for being an Outstanding Local Prosecutor’s Office by collaborating with the federal agency’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Initiative and its work with the U. S. Attorney’s Office.
“Throughout 2018 and 2019, the Solano County District Attorney’s Office demonstrated outstanding professionalism, support for U.S. Attorney’s Office initiatives, and ongoing cooperation with federal and state law enforcement partners to promote greater public safety.” U. S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott said in a press release issued Wednesday. “The Solano County District Attorney’s Office has demonstrated the exemplary initiative and collaboration needed to make PSN successful in keeping our communities safe, meeting bi-weekly with our office to discuss potential cases for federal prosecution.”
The award “exemplifies the true partnership between our office and the Office of the United States Attorney, Eastern District of California,” Abrams added in the prepared statement and singled out Scott’s leadership.
“We jointly share an unwavering commitment to getting illegal guns off the street and keeping our community safe, and I am honored to be working in collaboration with the U. S. Attorney’s Office regarding this effort,” she added.
Since the start of the PSN program in Solano County in July 2018, Abrams and her team of prosecutors has presented more than 400 cases for federal prosecutors to consider, with 46 cases selected for federal prosecution “targeting some of the most violent and recidivist criminals in Solano County,” Scott wrote in the release, noting that the Solano DA’s Office connected federal officials with more than 30 local gang investigators.
For instance, according to wording the statement, in October and November 2018 a multi-agency effort spearheaded by the Solano DA’s Office to identify the highest-risk offenders on probation, parole, and post- release community supervision located dozens of fugitives in Solano County in advance of Operation Triple Beam, a December 2018 exercise by the U. S. Marshals Service.
Scott said Abrams and her team made it easier for the U. S. Attorney’s Office to take on the cases that originated with state charges. T he cases included: 1) a March 2018 attempted homicide, in which two co- conspirators pipe bombed a residential home with a family of five inside; 2) a series of five convenience store robberies, during which the lead defendant brandished a firearm and threatened the counter clerks at gunpoint; and 3) five additional felon-in-possession of a firearm cases, including one defendant who was sentenced as an armed career criminal.
Given its position at the southwest boundary of the Eastern District of California, numerous cases originating in, or with ties to, Solano County, overlap with criminal conduct that could also be charged in surrounding counties (Napa, Contra Costa, Alameda, and/or Sacramento) or in the Northern District of California, Scott explained.
In at least two significant cases, the Solano DA’s Office agreed to dismiss local charges in lieu of federal prosecution in cases with regionwide criminal activity. These included: 1) the five Hobbs Act robberies charged in United States v. Young, et al., which spanned from Alameda to Solano to Sacramento counties; and 2) a “highvolume drug- trafficking case” stretching from Alameda to Solano counties, in which detectives seized more than four pounds of powder cocaine and over 3.5 pounds of cocaine base (crack cocaine) from the defendant’s home in Vallejo. The defendant in that case will be sentenced as a career offender, according to Scott.
Revitalized in 2017, PSN is a critical piece of the DOJ’s crime-reduction efforts, focusing on prosecuting those individuals “who most significantly drive violence in our communities, and supports and fosters partnerships between law enforcement and schools, the faith community, and local community leaders to prevent and deter future criminal conduct,” Scott added.