Legal News

Prosecutors admit to screw-ups that led to woman's death

By Jason Siegel

Los Angeles prosecutors admitted that their mistakes allowed a murder-suicide to take place, the Los Angeles Times reported.

After agreeing to a 16 month prison sentence for kidnapping and threatening Monica Thomas-Harris with a stun gun, her husband Curtis Harris was allowed to go free until sentencing - despite a probation report advising otherwise and without immediate warning given to Thomas-Harris.

Two weeks later, Harris killed his wife and himself.

Publicly admitting to errors is rare, but does not resolve the problem, legal experts told the Times.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office released a 66-page review yesterday that provides some reforms as a result of the murder-suicide, which it finds was "the ill-fated result of a confluence of questionable individual decisions and actions by otherwise well-intentioned, dedicated prosecutors, supervisors, and victim services support staff."

Among the reforms:

• Provide more information, training and support to deputies and coordinators assigned to the Victim Impact Program, including a manual
• To increase accountability by outlining the importance and expectations for performance in the Victim Impact Program Manual and directly and explicitly conveyed them to each deputy
• Improve communications with victims, "notifying victims and law enforcement before offers are tendered or defendants are release," unless they don't. In that case, they'll be notified "as soon as practicable following the court appearance."
• Keep all the stages of the proceeding as part of the case file, including impressions on whether a suspect is a danger to victims or the public so that the information is passed when a case is transferred.
• Keeping the Early Disposition Program or similar programs aimed a quick resolution to a case, off domestic violence cases

Besides the report, the district attorney's office recently changed how case files are organized, deciding that all key documents - like reports by corrections officials, probation, mental health records and police agencies - should go in the same place in the file, the Times reported.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on June 05, 2008 (boomark / email).