NCJ - HAGEN OUT, DIKEMAN NEXT?

HAGEN OUT, DIKEMAN NEXT?

On Friday, Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagen, a circuit prosecutor specializing in environmental crimes, was fired by the California District Attorneys Association, the nonprofit organization that employed him to work in Del Norte, Lake and Humboldt counties. Hagen, who was based in Humboldt County, had previously clashed politically with Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos, leading many courthouse watchers to believe that Gallegos arranged Hagen's dismissal.

The abrupt termination of the region's top environmental prosecutor left some confusion and anger in the regions he served. Reached Monday, Del Norte County District Attorney Mike Riese, one of the three DAs who shared Hagen's services, was livid at the California District Attorneys Association not only for taking away a capable prosecutor but for leaving him in the lurch. Hagen is scheduled to take several cases to trial in Del Norte County over the coming months, with one scheduled for this week; Riese only found out that the association had fired him after the fact, though he was assured that Hagen would be available to try the case beginning this week.

"I talked with the director [of the CDAA] Friday, and told them that I'm highly disappointed in the lack of notice," Riese said. "At no time did they ever confer with me." Riese added that if the problem was that Gallegos and Hagen did not gel personally or politically, he would have been happy to offer his office as a home base for the roving prosecutor: "If he had a problem with Paul Gallegos, I would have housed him here," Riese said.

Earlier this year, in the run-up to the June elections, Hagen, a member of the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee, cast the sole vote against that body's endorsement of Gallegos' reelection campaign. He argued that the committee should not choose between two Democrats — Gallegos and Deputy District Attorney Worth Dikeman.

Gallegos is on vacation and could not be reached for comment. Mike Testerman, the CDAA's assistant executive director, said Tuesday that he couldn't comment on the issue, but said that the association had no immediate replacement for Hagen. "There's no way to determine when there will be a replacement put into that position," he said. "That said, we are working with the affected district attorneys to provide appropriate coverage."

Among many other cases in his eight years as the circuit environmental deputy, Hagen successfully prosecuted the Pacific Lumber Co. three times between 1999 and 2002 for criminal violations of the Forest Practices Act and illegal alterations to stream beds. In addition, in 2004 he reached a settlement in a civil suit against the company that charged it with unfair business practices. Nearly half of the $80,000 settlement in that case, which stemmed from sloppy logging practices in the Van Duzen watershed, was used to fund educational programs on salmon habitat and endangered species in local elementary schools.

Hagen said Monday that he could not discuss the particulars of his termination, but said that he and his family plan to remain in Humboldt County.

Meanwhile, it appears that Gallegos has filled at least one of the positions that has been vacant in the office for some time. The California Bar Association web site reports that Arnold Klein, who last worked as a prosecutor in Monterey County, now lists the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office as his place of employment. Klein, who was admitted to the bar in 1972, is best known for his work as a defense attorney in the "Twilight Zone" case, which stemmed from an incident that killed actor Vic Morrow and two child extras during the filming of the 1983 movie.

One courthouse regular predicted last week that the hiring of Klein would precipitate the long-expected termination of Dikeman, a 20-year veteran of the office who ran against Gallegos in this year's election. "Paul's going to have his own old guy now," the regular observed.

— Hank Sims