Tori Verber Salazar: An Emotionally Unfit Prosecutor Whose Extreme Policies Undermine the Rule of Law and Makes all of San Joaquin County Less Safe
By Frank Gayaldo
Part one: San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar is emotionally unfit
Either the FBI is actually following her around, planting “listening devices” in her office and deploying “lip reading drones outside her office windows”, Tori is Cocoa for Cocoa Puffs, or some mixture of both.
Don’t believe Tori is paranoid? Please, don’t just take our word for it. Listen to what her own top administrators (plural) have said about her under penalty of perjury….
In August of 2016, San Joaquin District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar’s former Chief Investigator, Ken Melgoza, (a highly respected professional who was probably best known for helping the FBI investigate former Sheriff Baxter Dunn) claimed under penalty of perjury that he was retaliated against for refusing to disclose to Verber Salazar “his knowledge of and involvement in criminal investigations being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
After 209 Times brought the allegations to light in March of 2017, San Joaquin County Counsel J Mark Myles made the following statement to the Stockton Record:
“The county and District Attorney Verber Salazar deny the allegations made in the tort claim and are prepared to vigorously defend against them.”
As anyone familiar with the case expected, the county’s bold posturing didn’t age well. Within three months of our breaking the story, and the County boasting they were prepared to fight, the county instead settled with Melgoza, handing him over a $87,645 settlement, something that even the Stockton Record covered:
https://www.recordnet.com/news/20170614/claim-against-da-is-settled?template=ampart
Maybe, like us, you still do not want to believe San Joaquin County’s top legal eagle is emotionally unstable. But in order to do that, that would require believing both Tori’s former top criminal investigator Ken Melgoza and Ron Freitas, her former top assistant prosecuting attorney and highly respected Lodi Unified School District Trustee who was recently re-elected via a landslide are just making up similar stories under penalty of perjury. How likely is that?
In 2019, The Sacramento Bee did an extensive front page article on Ron Freitas’ claim:
“Lawsuit’s explosive claims of paranoia, retaliation and discrimination rock San Joaquin DA”
https://amp.sacbee.com/news/california/article232333217.html
We strongly encourage all voters to read this article and make their own determinations on who is being honest and forthright. Need more? Here is a copy of the actual lawsuit, which is still under litigation:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a4H-k59VSFsKND7BuY849Wuys7ARPa53/view
Since this article came out, and as recently as just a month ago, other DA employees are telling us that additional members of Tori’s leadership are abandoning her as her “listening device sweeps” continue.
Beyond the unfortunate fact that Tori is struggling with paranoia, and lacks a solid legal education, it is important for voters to understand that the policies of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton and yes, San Joaquin District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar are all being influenced by their shared beliefs in the “21 Principals for the 21st Century Prosecutor” a cornerstone of their new radical organization “Prosecutor’s Alliance of California” which is being funded by the Tides Center in San Francisco.
https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/FJP_21Principles_FINAL.pdf
These 21 Principles were written by Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP), the poorly named radical organization that has paid Salazar several thousand dollars in travel related expenses over the last few years.
FJP describes the 21 Principles as “a blueprint for elected prosecutors seeking to move away from past incarceration-based approaches.”
FJP, led by Miriam Krinsky, supports a variety of so-called progressive reforms. Some of these reforms are common sense and have already been employed in most California district attorneys’ offices for several years. Many reforms, however, are worthy of a more serious discussion.
For example, FJP’s 21 Principles recommend that the District Attorneys
• Seek diversion (no incarceration) for serious felonies.
• Support legislation to reduce sentence lengths.
• Support legislation to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences.
• Support legislation to eliminate three-strike laws.
• Support legislation to decriminalize all drug possession.
• Use prosecutorial discretion to not charge prostitution cases.
• Use prosecutorial discretion to not charge the poor and/or homeless with “quality
of life crimes,” like vandalism, theft, and trespassing.
• Use prosecutorial discretion to not charge misdemeanor and felony offenses and
instead use restorative justice for adults and juveniles, “including cases involving
violence and injury.”
• Seek only a one-year maximum term for parole (prison) or six months for
probation (jail).
• Support the repeal of the death-penalty.
• Actively try reduce death row sentences to life sentences.
• Oppose legislation to expand or expedite the death penalty.
In our next article we will interview Chuck Harris, President of the Stockton Police Officer Association, to get his opinions on how the above policies being advocated by Tori Salazar and her partners are impacting public safety. We will also be discussing Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon’s new policy to abandon victims at parole hearings.
We forwarded this article to Ms Salazar in advance to give her plenty of opportunity to “come to the table” if she so desires. That door remains open.
