Campbell Nonprofit Joins Taxpayer Group in Local Recall Effort

The red, star shaped plastic magnets were seen this week around the Santa Clara County Civic Center on newspaper racks, parking meters, traffic signs, and even a Sheriff's Department van parked in front of the county jail. The small text on each reads "RECALL DA JEFF ROSEN," and includes a website URL, recallrosen.org.

"For the time being, we are just trying to raise public awareness about the recall and thought the magnets were a fun way to kick it off," said Ulf Carlsson, policy director at the Socioeconomic Justice Institute, a startup nonprofit based in Campbell.

A currently anonymous group of Santa Clara County taxpayers are "exploring the feasibility of a campaign to to recall" controversial district attorney Jeff Rosen, according to the recallrosen.org website.

"For now, I am sworn to secrecy about the taxpayer group, but our objectives are similar," said Carlsson. "Rosen has a history of focusing the resources of his office on trivial crimes committed by the socioeconomically disadvantaged, while ignoring sophisticated white collar crimes and public corruption."

Carlsson and his colleagues at SJI believe the problem lies, in large part, with Rosen's obsession with maintaining high conviction ratios. It is easy to get convictions against the poor who can't afford an effective criminal defense lawyer and are forced to accept often indifferent, ineffective court appointed counsel, according to Carlsson and research by SJI.

"Rosen is reluctant to prosecute white collar crime and public corruption because those defendants can afford experienced, private sector criminal defense attorneys," Carlsson explained. "The DA's prosecutors are often outgunned by a good criminal lawyer, and that means a substantially lower conviction ratio for the DA's office. Rosen lives and dies by his conviction rates."

The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office also has a long history of prosecutor misconduct problems, such as withholding evidence from defendants and their attorneys. In fact, Rosen himself has been found guilty of prosecutorial misconduct, more than once.

"Veteran white collar criminal defense attorneys know, and call out prosecutor dirty tricks, whereas overworked public defenders with huge caseloads don't have the time or resources to hold prosecutors accountable," Carlsson said.

"Everything Rosen says and does is calculated to get him reelected, and that means keeping his conviction rates high, and that means avoiding prosecuting cases that might result in acquittal. Rosen has no confidence in his staff's ability to successfully prosecute white collar and public corruption cases against high-paid private defense lawyers."

The new recallrosen.org website explains:

"A group of Santa Clara County taxpayers are exploring the feasibility of a campaign to recall Jeff Rosen, the district attorney for the county. The group alleges that Rosen has engaged in waste, fraud, abuse of authority, and violation of law, as those terms are defined in the California Government Code.

"Among other issues, Rosen has failed or refused to prosecute public corruption and white collar crime, has failed to comply with crime victim laws, and has botched rape and domestic violence cases. Rosen’s office is rife with sexism, he protects his personal friends who work in the office from accountability, and he retaliates against whistleblowers...

"...Rosen has been involved in improper governmental activity including violations of state and federal law, corruption, malfeasance, fraud, coercion, conversion, malicious prosecution, misuse of government property, and willful omission to perform duty, the group alleges. Government Code § 8547.2(c).

"Throughout his long career as a prosecutor or as the district attorney, Rosen has been at the center, or in the vicinity of an endless stream of scandals in the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. The taxpayer group contends that Rosen has wasted taxpayer money, committed crimes, and deprived the public of the federally protected right to honest government services.

The district attorney does not deserve, and should not receive the taxpayer funded pension and gold-plated retirement health plan an honest and diligent district attorney would be entitled to."

The homepage at recallrosen.org also provides "a partial list of the misconduct Rosen has been involved in, helped cover up, or, it is fair to assume, was aware of and ignored."

The list includes 15 news reports of controversies involving Rosen and other prosecutors in his office.