John P. Sarcone

John P. Sarcone was first elected Polk County attorney (Des Moines, IA) in 1990 and has been re-elected every four years since. The office of 46 full-time prosecutors and one part-time prosecutor (who trains police) serves a population of 340,000 residents and handles felonies, misdemeanors, civil proceedings and juvenile cases. Over the past 15 years, Sarcone has witnessed firsthand the dramatic rise in methamphetamine-related cases. This significant increase in caseload is not just in drug charges, but in a variety of other crimes as well, from property crimes and theft to an increase in the number of child abuse petitions and child-in-need-of-assistance petitions as a result of parental involvement with the drug.

“Meth is a factor in probably 45 percent of our entire criminal caseload. Crack cocaine and alcohol are still problems, of course, but ‘ice’ is by far the greatest drug-related problem,” reports Sarcone.

Sarcone has also experienced firsthand the value of DNA evidence. In October 1991, a female homicide victim’s body was found east of Des Moines, in Altoona. Sarcone attended the autopsy—“my first and my last.” It was initially believed that the victim was an adult female, but she turned out to be an 11-year-old child who had been kidnapped in front of her church after a church dinner, sexually assaulted and strangled. “I’ll never forget the howl from her father as he identified her body,” Sarcone said.

Through the excellent work of the Department of Corrections, Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Des Moines Police Department, Altoona Police Department and the State Division of Criminal Investigations, a suspect was identified. DNA analysis confirmed that Charles LaSage, who had previously murdered a New York girl under similar circumstances, was charged and convicted of first degree murder in this case and sentenced to life without possibility of parole. “It was my first DNA case and one I’ll never forget,” Sarcone adds.

On a positive note, Sarcone sees his office doing a much better job in handling cases of child abuse, sexual abuse and domestic violence than when he first started. He attributes the improvements in case handling in large part to programs offered by the American Prosecutors Research Institute.

“Before I took office, too often these cases were not aggressively prosecuted. By emphasizing the need to work together—prosecutors, law enforcement, victims’ advocates and other allied professionals—we’ve been able to take these cases out of the shadows and shine some light on them. I re-organized our domestic violence unit. We are now much more effective in understanding the psychological problems which might cause a victim of domestic violence—or sexual assault or child abuse—to resist participating in the prosecution of the offense. Whereas before, a prosecutor could easily say ‘then let’s not prosecute,’ now we find ways to go forward with evidence-based prosecutions which do not rely solely on the testimony of the victim.”

One program that he is most proud of establishing, deals with the empowerment of victims. Victim-Offender Reconciliation Process (VORP) allows the victim of a crime to confront the defendant in a manner that helps victims put the crime behind them, while also holding the defendant accountable. Sarcone recalls one case that underscores the importance of this approach:

“A Marine and his wife were in Texas visiting a dying relative when their home in Des Moines was burglarized. They came back to deal with the burglary and as a result were not in Texas when the relative died. The burglar turned out to be a young kid who had the typical ‘it’s no big deal’ attitude. We encouraged the defendant and victims to attend a VORP meeting. Of course, the defendant wasn’t too interested, and the Marine initially expressed a ‘what good will it do’ attitude. The meeting took place. The Marine was able to explain to this kid how much pain this burglary had caused; the defendant, for the first time, put a face to the crime he’d committed and the impact it had. Afterwards, the Marine told us he could get rid of his gun now, because he knew who had burglarized their home and was no longer worried about it happening again.”

Sarcone is married and the father of three adult children. In his rare moments of spare time he enjoys running, traveling, playing golf and spending time with his family. He admits to a nine or ten handicap and loves the Waveland Public Golf Course in Des Moines, although he also enjoyed Hawk Tree in North Dakota when NDAA had its annual meeting there in 2002.

As for advice to new prosecutors:

“The way the courts (and public perception) are going after us, it’s important not to overtry your cases. Take a step back. Do what’s right and just. Work closely with your law enforcement personnel. There is no substitute for a good working professional relationship. Prosecutors and cops are out to get the bad guys, not argue with one another.”

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