By Laila Aziz
At a pivotal time, when progressive constituents in the state of California are demanding criminal justice reform due to archaic, racist, classist policy, one of the reform movement’s most formidable detractors, San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan, became a rape apologist. The criminal justice system is complex, and the District Attorney’s (DA’s) office exemplifies tremendous power within this framework by deciding which charges a person faces, which sentencing enhancements they will face, and the plea deal offered.
Pillars of the Community supports a local Participatory Defense hub created by Silicon Valley Debug. We are in the courtrooms daily observing and working closely with those closest to the pain. We court watch and aggregate data as it is happening around bail, enhancements, plea bargaining, stacking charges, and sentencing. Our collective work with our partners and community drive policy, advocacy, and direct action.
Summer Stephan has continued San Diego’s legacy of utilizing the criminal justice system as a weapon of America’s lust for inequity and segregation. Her office piles Black, Brown, and Asian Pacific Islanders into prisons for low-level crimes regardless of the sentencing reforms we have demanded. Her office is strategic in how they charge, ensuring they pump the most inequities into our community.
When Summer Stephan was confronted with having to hold a Sheriff Deputy accountable who utilized his badge to terrorize women in San Diego County sexually, she utilized her power as the District Attorney and did the unfathomable. She turned her back on 16 women and reduced the officer’s sexual assault charges to non-serious misdemeanors and felonies. She wanted him to reap the benefits of reform; she repeatedly denies so many of us daily.
The Tale of Two Counties
Recently Summer Stephan’s office charged a young man for fights, based on mutual combat, which law enforcement viewed on another young man’s cell phone. There were no victims and no serious injuries. The DA charged the young man with two assaults. Her office strategically included two gang enhancements, which increased the underlying felony of assault to a mandatory prison term and two strikes. He was facing seventeen years and shortly before trial pled to 4-years in prison. This felony will follow him forever. He will never be able to expunge his record, and he will have to register as a gang member.
In another incident, her office charged a young man with vandalism under $400, a misdemeanor, for writing on property. Misdemeanors are always completed locally, not in prison. Summer Stephan’s office strategically added the gang enhancement, giving him a felony and sentenced the young man to three years in prison. He will never be able to expunge his record and will have to register as a gang member upon release. This young man’s life will be affected for decades for writing on a wall. It is unconscionable to send a young man to prison, where he will be around violence, trauma, and rape for writing on a wall!
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, former San Diego Sheriff Deputy Richard Fischer faced “20 charges involving 16 accusers. Most of the charges involved allegations of assault and battery under the color of authority, but there was one allegation that he forced a woman to perform a sex act.” These charges included groping, stroking, hugging, and kissing women who expressed fear and severe trauma due to his acts.
On the day of trial, the San Diego District Attorney’s office struck a deal with the defendant. They dropped all of the sexual assault charges and refiled an amended complaint. The DA paved the way for a man who fondled handcuffed women to avoid prison and sex offender registration.
“The Police Scorecard” a recent report published by Campaign Zero, found that the San Diego Sheriff’s Department was 47% more likely to use force on Blacks than Whites. San Diego is preparing to decide a ballot measure in 2020, which will make an independent police commission with both subpoena power and an independent investigator. Summer Stephan, in her recent decisions, has demonstrated that regardless of the proof, as long as she is in office, she will never hold law enforcement accountable for police brutality or sexual assault. Summer Stephan has proven that as long as she remains top cop in San Diego County, she will fight to maintain the status quo -the New Jim Crow.
Laila Aziz
Program Director
Pillars of the Community
