ER - Wes Keat promoted to assistant DA

Wes Keat promoted to assistant DA
by Christine Bensen, 5/11/2005

Humboldt County Deputy District Attorney Wes Keat spoke publicly in his new role as assistant district attorney at a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.

District Attorney Paul Gallegos was out of town and unavailable for comment, but Keat said his understanding is that Gallegos changed his title from chief criminal deputy because he fulfills an administrative role in the office, including making filing decisions on felony cases.

“I’ve been doing the administrative things and Mr. Stoen has been going to court litigating cases,” Keat said. “It’s not a big deal. Mr. Stoen will continue prosecuting many of the more important cases, both civil and criminal.”

Stoen said the change has been planned for a while.

“I only gave Paul a one-year commitment to be the assistant DA,” Stoen said. “The reason that I couldn’t leave after one year was because of the recall.”

Gallegos began his term as district attorney in January 2003. In February of that year his office filed a fraud lawsuit against Pacific Lumber Co. Soon after, an effort to recall Gallegos was afoot.

In March 2004, the recall was rejected by voters.

Stoen, who will now be the prosecutor in charge of special cases, said his interest and experience is in special cases that mostly focus on white-collar crime and he plans to focus on that.

Stoen said, Keat does an “extraordinarily good” job in his administrative role.

Keat has been with the office since April 1994 and has worked as chief criminal deputy under Gallegos’ administration. He held a similar position during former District Attorney Terry Farmer’s last term.