Longtime Pima County prosecutor faces Democratic primary challenger

Longtime Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall is facing a former public defender in August’s Democratic primary election.

Last September, Joel Feinman, 38, left his job with the Pima County Public Defender’s Office to campaign full-time.

LaWall became the first woman to be elected Pima County attorney in 1996 and only the second woman to hold the position.

Both candidates have appeared at a number of community forums and events, but haven’t participated in a debate. Feinman has said he would welcome a debate with LaWall.

“She refuses to appear (and debate me) in public,” he said. “I’ll go anyplace, anytime.”

LaWall said she won’t be debating Feinman, but would not say why.

While he’s campaigning on issues where he believes the county attorney’s office is falling short, she’s using her 30 years of experience as her platform, and pointing out his lack thereof.

“My expertise is beyond anything that my opponent can bring to the office,” she said, pointing out that he’s had no prosecutorial experience and has never managed a staff or department budget.

The winner of the Aug. 30 primary will face Green Party candidate Cyndi Tuell in the November general election. There are no Republican candidates.

The Star spoke to both candidates about their positions.

Jail population and mental health issues

A majority of the people in the county jail are being held awaiting trial, and an estimated 60 percent of inmates have some sort of mental health issue, Corrections Chief India Davis told the Star earlier this year.

“We should only be holding people in jail before they go to trial if they’re a threat to the community, a risk to re-offend or a risk to not appear in court. We shouldn’t be holding them in jail just because they can’t afford a $200 bond,” Feinman said. “Putting them on house arrest, equipping them with an ankle monitor, putting them on pre-trial supervision is all cheaper.”

Because of the high volume of people with mental health issues who end up in jail, it’s important to determine if that person is there because they committed a crime, or because they have mental health issues that contributed to them violating the law, he said.

One of the ideas that LaWall has in the planning stages is a collaborative behavioral health treatment court — referred to as Misdemeanor Problem Solving Court — which would join together six different courts in Pima County. It would be a way to help the mentally ill and homeless who tend to be “recycling” through the court system, she said.

“We’re also looking into specific types of electronic bracelets, like FitBits, to remind people who don’t have the means to keep track, that they have court dates,” she said. She is also in the process of working with a local mental health agency to create a treatment center that law enforcement would be able to bring mental health arrestees, other than jail, to get them immediate treatment.

Spending funds from civil forfeitures

Civil asset forfeiture is a process in which authorities seize property that’s used in or purchased with funds from an illegal activity, even if the person whose property is taken is never charged with a crime.

The funds from seized items is deposited into the county’s RICO Fund, and intended to spend on crime-fighting efforts.

Feinman said he’d like to get more of that money to victims of crimes like violent burglaries or home invasions.

“That’s the purpose of the justice system. It’s not to line of the pockets of the people in charge, but to make the victims whole again,” he said. “I think far too often prosecutors are asking judges to help seize property that wasn’t related to the crime.”

Feinman said one of the most important and possibly overlooked factors in seizing assets is making sure the property actually belongs to the defendant.

LaWall said despite the controversy surrounding the seizure of personal property, there are valid reasons for the process and safeguards in place.

Before assets can be legally seized, the county attorney’s office has to prove in a court hearing that there’s a connection between the property seized and a crime, she said.

“Asset forfeiture is intended to reduce criminal activity by denying people involved of the profits” LaWall said. “Another benefit is that the proceeds are used to support law enforcement efforts, or to community efforts.”

One of the ways that the funds have been used recently are the 78,000 gun locks that have been purchased and distributed to the community for free.

“I love the irony of the fact that these free gun locks that are being distributed to gun owners with small children in the house have been purchased by the criminal proceeds that have been forfeited by the courts,” LaWall said. “We could never use tax money to buy gun locks.”

Prosecuting sexual assaults

During his campaign, Feinman has collected data from the county attorney’s office and the department of corrections, regarding what cases are being tried and what kind of offenders are incarcerated.

He found that in 2013, 36 percent of the felony cases the Pima County Attorney’s office filed with the court were drug cases. Only seven percent are for sexual assault.

“As of April, over 20 percent of the people in Arizona prisons were for drug offenses. A little more than 7 percent are there for sex crimes,” Feinman said. “Why are so many people in prison for nonviolent drug offenses?”

He said that if elected, he would hire and train prosecutors to prosecute sex crimes much more aggressively.

“Sixty-five percent of cases the county Attorney’s Office takes to trial are violent and dangerous offenders,” LaWall said, denying Feinman’s claims. “A significant number of cases come out of our special victims unit, and we are probably one of the most aggressive prosecutors in the nation.”

She added that her special victims unit works vigorously to prosecute offenders while being sensitive to victims’ needs.

“I cannot even begin to imagine that he’s going to do anything better or more than what we are doing.”

Deciding who to prosecute

“The first question I would ask is, ‘am I protecting the community?” Feinman said. “Am I making Pima County a safer place to live?”

He said that because of the county attorney office’s finite resources, the first priority should always be victims of direct, physical or economical harm.

“The day that we don’t have under-prosecuted sexual or violent crimes, we can send more resources fighting this war on drugs, but I just don’t understand how prosecuting and locking up nonviolent drug offenders makes our community safer.”

LaWall said the ethical obligation of the office is to only charge people when there’s evidence of their guilt that’s beyond a reasonable doubt.

“We make very careful decisions about whether that evidence exists in order to prove our case,” she said. “The kind of evidence needed is different depending on the kind of case.”