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Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton is inviting residents to learn how her office works this fall in the 2023 Fall Community Academy.
The free, nine-week course will be held at the DA’s office in downtown Martinez, from 6-8:30 p.m. every Wednesday, beginning Sept. 6.
“One of my goals as district attorney is to be more transparent with the community about what our office does in the criminal justice system,” Becton said in a statement. “The community academy is an integral program that strengthens our community through education, information, and understanding.”
Participants will get an in-depth view of the criminal justice system by hearing from deputy district attorneys, investigators, victim advocates, support staff, community-based organizations and justice partners.
People will learn firsthand how the District Attorney’s Office files cases, will meet with a Superior Court judge during a court tour, gain knowledge about prosecutions and investigations, visit the Martinez Detention Facility, and understand the office’s outreach efforts for children, parents, and victims.
The academy is open to residents 18 and older who live or work in Contra Costa County. To apply, go to contracostada.org by June 30.
Or how it doesn’t work.
Whatever the DA and cohorts are doing is NOT working. That is obvious to anyone who pays any attention to the escalating crime locally and elsewhere in our State. We don’t need some tax payer paid academy trying to tell us otherwise.
What some law and order advocates don’t realize is that it costs a lot of money (at taxpayer’s expense) and time for a DA to bring a case to trial.
The DA must have an ironclad case in order to justify prosecution and in many instances, there are loose ends which could lead to a dismissal.
Thus DA Becton must carefully decide which offenses are worth pursuing concurrent with the best chances of getting a conviction.
As a result, some crimes and misdemeanors are not actively pursued.
Kudos to Ms. Becton for making these tough decisions
Spoken like a person who has no experience in law.
Being that the timeframe encompasses most people’s dinner time, will Ms. Becton be serving food or refreshments?
Sorry Bryan, I’m intimately familiar with the criminal just system in Contra Costa County and she is a train wreck. She does not make tough decisions.
Hey Bryan,
Since you believe so much in progressive DA’s, I thought I would run this gem by you:
The two men accused of killing toddler Jasper Wu in a shootout on a Bay Area freeway no longer face the possibility of life without parole or a death sentence after prosecutors reduced the charges against them.
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price removed the special circumstances charge for defendants, Ivory Bivens, 24, and Trevor Green, 22, KTVU learned Wednesday.
Furthermore, if convicted, Bivens and Green, will no longer face life in prison without parole or the death penalty, which is already on hold in California.
And there it is, another progressive DA not doing their job. And people like you wonder why all of this lawlessness continues.
BTW, Price and Becton are cut from the same cloth.
“…if convicted, Bivens and Green, will no longer face life in prison without parole or the death penalty, which is already on hold in California.”
^ Being young men (22 and 24) both will have time to reflect on their misdoings and perhaps be eligible for parole after 12+ years of incarceration. Ideally, they will have learned a valuable life lesson and upon release, be able to renew their personal lives in a responsible and productive manner.
Everyone makes mistakes in life and DAs Price and Becton are taking this into consideration. Besides, it is the judge who issues the sentencing not the DAs. The district attorney’s office can only advocate punishments based on pre- established sentencing guidelines.
The progressive perspective is to provide an opportunity for rehabilitation and transition back into mainstream society…not harsher punishments that make a convict even more anti-social and internally resentful upon release.
Making humanistic headways often involves overlooking past indescretions and forgiveness.
This is the true Christian perspective which is often ignored by the self-proclained devout.
“The two men accused of killing toddler Jasper Wu in a shootout on a Bay Area freeway no longer face the possibility of life without parole or a death sentence after prosecutors reduced the charges against them.”
It was an accident and since the DAs cannot prove the shooting victim was intentionally targeted, they are limited in their pursuit of justice by varioys legal statutes.
First degree manslaughter is far different than first degree murder.
@ Marcus
You said: Everyone makes mistakes in life. Yeah, but not everyone murders another person. Those two thugs murdered another human being. The progressive DA made the decision to go after them om manslaughter charges because it fits here woke BS.
@ Robin
It wasn’t an “accident,” as you say. The charge should have been murder in the third degree. Third-degree murder is the lowest criminal homicide with no intent to kill and no premeditation. Your two thugs committed murder.
How interesting that you and Marcus play down the incident as only an “accident.” Those two thugs used a firearm in the commission of a crime. There was no accident.
@Malcom Hex: By curtailing the sale of firearms (both legal and illegal), chances are these types of tragedies would not occur.
“Everyone makes mistakes in life. Yeah, but not everyone murders another person.”
^ A perfect alibi for wrongful police shootings
@Amrit
Don’t believe in the Second Amendment? You and Gavin should get together. Uh, don’t forget your mask!
@Holly
Wrongful police shootings are accidents Holly, and those accidents happened in the performance of their duties. Show me where a police officer, in the performance of his/her duties, has ever been charged with INTENT to murder under 187PC. You won’t find many, if at all. However, those thugs that you say committed an “accident” were attempting to murder someone else and as a result killed a child.
Maybe you should take a look around and tell me why there is so much crime in Chicago and Los Angeles. Better yet, we have a considerable amount of gun violence right in the Bay Area. Yet, you obviously ignore that fact and blame all your woes on the police.
I would rather hear you say that you don’t a solution to all this violence happening around the country than to take the easy way out and blame the police.
“Wrongful police shootings are accidents Holly, and those accidents happened in the performance of their duties.”
@Malcom Hex: what about wrongful police-related beatings?
Are they ‘accidents’ as well?
@Michael
Yeah, and what about the beatings law enforcement takes to protect people like you? But that’s what the anti-cops like you think.
@Marcus who stated the following: “Making humanistic headways often involves overlooking past indiscretions and forgiveness.”
Okay Marcus, by your logic, we should forgive and release all rapists, pedophiles, and murderers. Correct? Let me put it to you this way regarding pedophiles. Pedophiles can’t change. They are hard-wired into thinking and doing the sick things they do. They can’t help themselves. They are who they are and will be that way for the rest of their lives. They can’t change for the better any more than a serial killer, serial rapist, etc.
Let me ask you this: Would you allow a child in your family any where near a known pedophile? If you saw a known pedophile run off with a small child, would you forgive him on the spot or shoot him? I’m a Christian, but would have absolutely no hesitation to ending the life of someone who attempted that kind of harm to my clan.
I don’t forgive people with twisted evil minds. Never have, never will.