The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on January 27, 2004, that the state’s district attorneys are subject to term limits, making Colorado the first state in the nation to put such limits on its district attorneys. The decision means 13 of Colorado’s 22 district attorneys must leave office in January 2005. This ruling stemmed from a 1994 constitutional amendment which imposed a two-term limit on any “non-judicial” elected official in any Colorado county, city or town. However, the amendment also permitted voters to lengthen, shorten or eliminate the term limits for any particular office. A Pueblo district judge ruled in February 2003 that Gus Sandstrom was exempt from term limits because his district’s county commissioners had asked voters to exempt the Pueblo DA.
With Norm Maleng, DA of King County (Seattle), Washington, serving as chair of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section, and several other NDAA members serving in the section, the prosecution side is beginning to get what Maleng describes as “some traction” in the ABA’s criminal justice policy-making group. Members of the section include Charles J. (Joe) Hynes, DA of Kings County (Brooklyn), NY; former NDAA President Robert M. A. Johnson, Anoka County, MN, attorney; former NDAA President John Kaye, Monmouth County, NJ, prosecutor; Barbara LaWall, Pima County (Tucson), AZ, attorney; Susan Gaertner, Ramsey County (St. Paul), MN, attorney; Dick Devine, Cook County (Chicago), IL, state’s attorney; and M. Jane Brady, attorney general of Delaware. Dino Amoroso, first assistant DA of Kings County, NY, and an NDAA associate director, is chair of ABA’s Prosecution Function Committee.
Now that he’s retired, former New Orleans DA Harry Connick has more time to travel with his famous son, vocalist and bandleader Harry Connick, Jr., and even occasionally sings with the band. During Harry Jr.’s appearance at the famed Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Harry Sr. was backstage when a reviewer for The Washington Post reported, “Near night’s end, Connick semi-bullied his father, Harry Sr., into coming out for a song. The elder Connick seemed genuinely surprised, but pulled himself together to lead the band on Si Zentner’s ‘Up a Lazy River.’” The reviewer concluded: “Coolness in the Connick family didn’t skip a generation.”
Kamala Harris, a deputy San Francisco city attorney who spent two years as a prosecutor in the office of two-term San Francisco DA Terence Hallinan, defeated her former boss in a runoff election, becoming the first African-American DA in California history. She was the top vote getter among the four candidates running for citywide offices, outpolling the mayoral winner, Garvin Newsom, by 3,000 votes.
Deaths: Everett Burton, 78, a former NDAA president (1968-69) and prosecuting attorney of Scioto County (Portsmouth), Ohio, for 23 years. He also served as president of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association. He was elected a Portsmouth Municipal Court judge in 1985 and later served as judge of the county common pleas court. Upon his retirement from the common pleas court, he was appointed to the Ohio Court of Claims, where he served until July 2003.
Berkshire (Massachusetts) DA Gerard (Gerry) Downing, 52, died of an apparent heart attack, suffered while shoveling snow in his driveway. He had been a popular figure in the Berkshire criminal justice system, serving first as an assistant DA from 1983 until 1990, when he took a leave of absence to run for the DA’s seat. He won the office in November 1990, was sworn in for his first term on January 2, 1991, and had been re-elected ever since.
|
|
