Court records detail sexual allegations against Western Slope district attorney

[MikeG]

Court records detail sexual allegations against Western Slope district attorney - The Denver Post

Bill Clinton School of Law.

Kudo's to the investigator that just happened to notice an inappropriate text message that triggered the investigation. Apparently the whole office is an integrity free zone.

I'm sorry, but I have a lot sympathy for women that are victimized because they are unfamiliar with the law. But working with prosecutors and investigators while silently putting up with sexual assault for three years? The DA's behavior is completely unacceptable and the DA should be gone. But it's 2010. These women should know what to report and how to report it, especially in the DA office.

If these women knew he was embezzling for 3 years and said nothing out of fear, they would have canned them and rightly so. I have no idea what to do about this though. They are victims but I don't think they should be working in the DAs office anymore.

Am I missing something?

The irony of the DA employing a defense attorney to argue he said/she said is not lost. Hopefully he gets disbarred and impeached quickly.

[retdetsgt]

The irony of the DA employing a defense attorney to argue he said/she said is not lost. Hopefully he gets disbarred and impeached quickly.

Everyone has the right to a defense. I wouldn't want to live where they didn't.

[MikeG]

Everyone has the right to a defense. I wouldn't want to live where they didn't.

I agree completely. I was pointing out mostly how his office has probably prosecuted "he said/she said" cases with less evidence. I think it makes continuing as prosecutor problematic.

[retdetsgt]

We had a DA get busted for DUI in Sacramento. He stated his reason for refusing the breath test was that cops always lie. That was after he kissed off a promoting prostitution case I made on a madam in town that had who's who in Portland on her clientele list. Of course, he was later a judge......

Fortunately, the DA that replaced him about 1980 and is still DA is straight as they come. People have been spoiled by him, who knows what they'll get next.

[S-99]

Court records detail sexual allegations against Western Slope district attorney - The Denver Post

Bill Clinton School of Law.

Kudo's to the investigator that just happened to notice an inappropriate text message that triggered the investigation. Apparently the whole office is an integrity free zone.

I'm sorry, but I have a lot sympathy for women that are victimized because they are unfamiliar with the law. But working with prosecutors and investigators while silently putting up with sexual assault for three years? The DA's behavior is completely unacceptable and the DA should be gone. But it's 2010. These women should know what to report and how to report it, especially in the DA office.

If these women knew he was embezzling for 3 years and said nothing out of fear, they would have canned them and rightly so. I have no idea what to do about this though. They are victims but I don't think they should be working in the DAs office anymore. Am I missing something?

The irony of the DA employing a defense attorney to argue he said/she said is not lost. Hopefully he gets disbarred and impeached quickly.

I'd say you may very likely be missing something. How can you feel you know the whole story just by reading this article? What makes you so sure that if any of these victims had reported it, it would have been handled properly by their superiors? (For all we know, someone did report an earlier incident, and they were laughed at or retaliated against, or the culture in their office was such that they knew it wouldn't be handled to their advantage.)

The economy is terrible, more so in certain regions of the country, and it may be that these women were living paycheck-to-paycheck, while trying to escape a terrible situation by leaving for better jobs, and they couldn't find them right away, either because of the unemployment situation or because they felt they didn't have the skills to find an equivalent job elsewhere. Predators prey on those they know to be vulnerable.

[retdetsgt]

When you have several women reporting this kind of thing against one person, you can bet there's some truth to it. I've worked around the kind of women you're talking about too, but they are generally serial complainers. My experience is such that this makes perfect sense to me.

[S-99]

When you have several women reporting this kind of thing against one person, you can bet there's some truth to it.

Yes, agreed. But in this story involving the DA, none of them proactively came forward. (The article suggests that that they didn't report until someone else (a male employee who found a sexual text message) initiated an investigation and they were questioned.) I don't think it's atypical -- the reporting rate for sexual assaults generally is low (around 40%).

I've worked around the kind of women you're talking about too, but they are generally serial complainers. My experience is such that this makes perfect sense to me.

What makes perfect sense?

[S-99]

Interesting footnote (from Denver Post article cited above, 11/5/10):
"The alleged victims do not include a woman who had a tumultuous relationship with Serra and who twice sought restraining orders against him, alleging he was stalking and harassing her. Magistrates had turned down those requests."
DA Myrl Serra of the 7th Judicial District faces more charges involving female victims - The Denver Post

See also: http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=104&sid=2066608

Edited to add:

I agree completely. I was pointing out mostly how his office has probably prosecuted "he said/she said" cases with less evidence. I think it makes continuing as prosecutor problematic.

As for MikeG's statement that the allegations make continuing as a prosecutor problematic, at least one newspaper editor expressed the very same opinion today:
http://www.montrosepress.com/article...8802623077.txt