Race pits prosecutor against family court judge
Morgan Hill – The gloves are off in this year’s race for district attorney, a contest as genteel as a courtroom battle.
Karyn Sinunu has been labeled the insider; Dolores Carr, the outsider. But both squirm under the labels. Carr dubs herself “an outsider with inside experience,” having spent 15 years in the DA’s office before becoming a family court judge. Sinunu, a 20-year prosecutor, is a self-declared “reformer from the inside.”
Face to face, the contrast is clearer. Sinunu speaks in bullet points, Carr in measured prose. Carr subtly ribs her opponent; Sinunu digs into Carr’s family-law background, and her marriage to a San Jose police lieutenant. Sinunu talks up her experience; Carr promotes her fresh perspective.
With 42 percent of the vote, Carr edged out Sinunu by 8 percent in a four-candidate June primary. But in a narrower field, the race is still on.
On the Issues
The two split over how to investigate police shootings. Sinunu supports open grand jury hearings in such cases, as well as open coroner’s inquests, where the facts of a citizen’s death are laid bare.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, police are justified” when they shoot someone, Sinunu said. “But people need to see that. They have a right to know what happens when a citizen is killed by the police.”
Under Kennedy, the office approved public hearings to investigate controversial killings such as the death of 25-year-old mother Bich Cau Tri Tran, shot by officer Chad Marshall in her kitchen. Marshall was not indicted, to the outrage of many Vietnamese-Americans in San Jose.
But Carr said open hearings should be reserved for “extraordinary cases,” to spare witnesses the “media circus” of a public proceeding, and protect the testimony of spotlight-shy witnesses. An officer’s career can be ruined by an unproven claim, she added.
“Confidentiality protects their privacy rights, until they’re charged with a crime,” Carr said.
Closed hearings worry some minority groups such as the NAACP, which endorsed Sinunu earlier this year. Carr said the solution lies not in public hearings, but in continuing dialogue with community groups.
“If people understand the way the system is designed to work before something bad happens, they’re less concerned about secrecy or a cover-up,” she said. Sinunu backs a similar process, the District Attorney’s Advisory Forum, where members of community groups would meet quarterly with the DA to share their concerns.
Carr is no stranger to cross-cultural issues: as a family court judge, she’s navigated arranged marriages and dealt with abusers who threaten their victims with deportation. Translation services have expanded under her guidance, and she advocates hiring attorneys with Mandarin, Persian, Spanish and Vietnamese language skills, as well as diversity training for current staff. Her endorsements include the Black Lawyers Association and the Korean Bar Association.
Nonetheless, Sinunu said the issue demonstrates where Carr’s loyalties lie: with police.
“Carr knows what the cops want, and they want these things closed,” she said, calling her marriage to a San Jose police lieutenant “an inherent conflict.”
“She’s family.”
Police overwhelmingly side with Carr. The Gilroy and Morgan Hill police officers’ associations have endorsed her, as well as statewide groups, including the California Coalition of Law Enforcement Associations and the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs. She dismisses Sinunu’s claim that her husband’s job will prejudice her.
Besides, she added, “my husband doesn’t have the power to deliver those endorsements … It’s a diversion, to try to explain why she [Sinunu] has no support from police.”
Sinunu frames that lack of support as independence from police. She takes a similar tack with the former DA, George Kennedy, who withdrew his endorsement from her this summer. It gives her independence, she said – something desirable amid news of wrongful convictions at the DA’s office.
The claims center on jailhouse informants, who may offer crime tips – true or false – in exchange for softer sentences. A San Jose Mercury News series, ‘Tainted Trials, Stolen Justice,’ investigated eight local cases, including that of Morgan Hill resident Roy Garcia, whose murder conviction was overturned last year after an informant’s testimony was discredited.
Carr attributed the sham convictions to an “overemphasis on winning” at the DA’s office. Months before the series, she added, a deputy DA told her, ” ‘I’ve been told I need to win.’ ” Her perspective as a family judge encourages her to look more broadly at a case, she said.
“My job isn’t just to prosecute a case,” said Carr. “It’s about how this case affects the community.”
Sinunu pointed to the case of Ricky Walker, who she helped free 12 years after he was framed for murder. She’s also proposing a bank of all informant activity, so that lawyers can track a snitch’s reliability.
Another point of contention between the two is the management system by which new attorneys learn the trade. Carr says up-and-coming attorneys aren’t allowed to exercise discretion and develop their judgment.
“Managers are there to support you,” she said, “not to make your decisions for you … Of course, you’re accountable for your decisions … [but as things are] you might as well have the supervisor do the work.”
Sinunu says the system is effective, and keeps attorneys in check.
“We’re talking about someone’s freedom,” she said. “You don’t practice on human beings.”
As election day nears, one thing is certain: Either candidate will make history, as the county’s first female district attorney.
The rest will be settled at the ballot box.
Emily Alpert covers public safety issues for The Dispatch. She can be reached at 847-7158, or at [email protected].
