ER - Prosecutor assigned to Child Abuse Services Team

Prosecutor assigned to Child Abuse Services Team

Prosecutor assigned to Child Abuse Services Team
by Christine Bensen-Messinger, 9/22/2006

After serving as the main deputy prosecuting child abuse cases for the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office for a little more than a year, Maggie Fleming has started focusing on other felony cases.

Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Schwartz, who has been with the office for approximately one year, is taking over her caseload, which he said he is looking forward to.

He still has some cases to finish up, as does Fleming, but Schwartz has already started being involved in the Child Abuse Services Team, he said.

“I am looking forward to it. I was a little concerned at first working in that area … but I have been doing it for about two or three weeks (and) I am impressed with the team that is already in place,” Schwartz said.

“My understanding is that I am going to stay on as the director of CAST,” Fleming said. “I will still be picking up some of the cases. We have a lot of jobs in the office that people share.”

In general, Fleming said her focus will be prosecuting felony cases.

“I‘ve got a homicide and some other cases that I’ve held onto,” she said.

“The CAST director became an official position through a modification of the bylaws to create the director position last year,” said Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos.

Gallegos said he and Phillip Crandall, director of the county’s department of Health and Human Services, thought it was necessary to create the position to streamline the decision-making process in CAST.

“Maggie was assigned to that position. She has met all of my expectations in that role and, at this time, she remains in that position,” he said.

CAST is made up of members from the District Attorney’s Office; local law-enforcement agencies; Child Welfare Services; the Department of Health and Human Services Mental Health Division, Child, Youth and Family Services Division, and Public Health Branch; North Coast Rape Crisis Team; Sexual Assault Response Team; the Humboldt County Probation Department; and local tribes.

The way CAST works is that once law enforcement opens a case, the alleged abused child and his/her family go to the CAST office so that the child’s statement can be taken and the family interviewed too, according to a previous article in The Eureka Reporter.
If the alleged abuser is a member of the family, they are not allowed at the CAST office, the article stated.
To avoid putting a parent or guardian in the situation of being a possible witness for the defense, the interview is done without the parent or guardian of the child present, the article stated.
Once the alleged abused child and family arrive, the child is brought into a room with a trained interviewer. If at any time the child needs a break, it is granted, the article stated.

Although he is finishing up some other cases, Schwartz said at this point he is spending most of his time working on CAST.

“I am going to all the CAST interviews and do everything that a CAST prosecutor will do,” he said.

Gallegos said it is not unusual for prosecutors to rotate assignments.

“We rotate assignments as we believe it is necessary,” he said. “Our goal is to cross-train our felony attorneys to CAST and to all other areas of our office and to rotate them into those positions over an appropriate period of time so they can both obtain and maintain that expertise. The prosecution of child abuse is especially important. Therefore, we want every felony attorney to be trained to handle those cases.”

As for how long Schwartz will be the CAST attorney, Gallegos said nothing is ever set in stone.

“We rotate assignments as we believe it is necessary,” he said. “Many things could extend or shorten an assignment to a particular area.”

Copyright (C) 2005, The Eureka Reporter. All rights reserved.

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