TS - Albin Sheets accuses Gallegos of incompetence - Jan, 2004

Albin Sheets accuses Gallegos of incompetence
By James Tressler The Times-Standard
Jan, 2004

EUREKA -- Gloria Albin Sheets fired off a blistering e-mail assessment of District Attorney Paul Gallegos on Monday, accusing him of incompetence.

In an e-mail titled "Paul Gallegos Incompetent?" that was sent to a number of reporters, Albin Sheets took Gallegos to task for his perceived mishandling of a recent child molestation case. The case involved Pedro Martinez-Hernandez, a Ferndale man who faces 16 years in prison following his plea earlier this month to one charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child and a charge of false representation of self to a peace officer. Martinez-Hernandez is to appear in court Feb. 3 for sentencing.

Police have been critical of Gallegos, who handled the case. The Humboldt Deputy Sheriff's Department said investigating deputies determined there were 1,900 counts of sexual intercourse with the girl over the course of six or seven years, beginning when she was about 5 years old. Deputies also determined there were an additional 1,000 counts of acts like fondling and oral copulation.

Albin Sheets, an ex-deputy district attorney who is hoping to oust Gallegos in the March 2 recall election, charged that Gallegos mishandled the case.

"Charging only one count of a 'continuous act' is demonstrative of Gallegos' lack of experience as a prosecutor," Albin Sheets said. "The reasoning would then be, if you are raping (a child), you may as well continue doing it because the sentence will be the same no matter when you are caught."

Albin Sheets was terminated by Gallegos earlier this year while she was on medical leave, a separation Gallegos said was caused by budget cuts.

In her e-mail, Albin Sheets criticized Gallegos' handling of the Martinez-Hernandez case. She maintained "he doesn't want to do the work necessary to prove the incidents beyond a reasonable doubt." Even if Gallegos had only been able to get 10 or 20 counts, the man still would have gone to prison the rest of his life, she charged.

Gallegos last week said Martinez-Hernandez was formally charged with the two charges to which he entered guilty pleas. Gallegos said he opted for the catch-all charge, because "if we charge someone with multiple counts, we have to show exactly when each incident took place and we have to prove each incident beyond a reasonable doubt."

Gallegos said he was not bargaining with Martinez-Hernandez, adding, "I was not trying to cut him any slack."

Other crimes alleged on the arrest warrant that Martinez-Hernandez was not formally charged with included oral copulation of a minor, incest, possession of methamphetamine, possession of a false social security card and possession of marijuana.

A warrant does not count as a formal charge, Gallegos said, drawing a distinction between the counts listed in the warrant and the later formal charges.

Gallegos also said that Martinez-Hernandez faces federal charges after he serves his prison term on local charges and he will serve an additional 20 years in a federal prison.

Albin Sheets said Gallegos wants the federal authorities to do his work.

"He thinks the federal authorities will pick up the defendant after he has served his prison term," she wrote. "What are the federal charges pending against the defendant?"

Albin Sheets contended that if such a sentence is ordered, most likely the sentence would run concurrent with the local sentence.

The U.S. Attorney's Office is San Francisco has not returned phone calls to the Times-Standard regarding the federal sentencing.

Meanwhile, Albin Sheets also noted that other deputies handling molestation cases recently have managed to get much tougher results than those Gallegos got with Martinez-Hernandez. Just a few weeks ago, Deputy District Attorney Allison Jackson prosecuted Michael Hiscox, accused of raping two underage boys over the course of several years. Hiscox was sentenced in January to life in prison.

Gallegos is out of town this week attending a statewide district attorney's conference. His campaign manager Richard Salzman said he hesitated to talk about legal issues, but he also disputed several of Albin Sheet's criticisms.

Salzman maintained that while Gallegos appeared in court, the actual charging was done by senior prosecutor Wes Keat, using a law passed by the Legislature that allows for instances of long-term abuse to be consolidated into a single, continuous act.

"Gloria Sheets may have no compunction about putting this victim on the stand and forcing her to relive all the counts or even just eight counts of this experience," Salzman said. "However, I trust in the wisdom of the DA's office and Wes Keat who used a law created by the Legislature for this purpose. ... Sixteen years is a serious sentence, and with federal charges to follow, this man will never see the light of day."

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...a copy of this article is also at watchpaul-articles
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