We invite all concerned citizens of Contra Costa County to watch District Attorney Robert Kochly’s presentation to the Board of Supervisors at their Budget Hearing on March 17th, 2009, where the County Administrator’s Recommended Budget was discussed. At the Board of Supervisors meeting, District Attorney Robert Kochly clearly articulated the drastic staffing cutbacks that would result from the $2.5 million budget reduction being imposed on his Department. Mr. Kochly cautioned the Board of Supervisors that he could not pretend that the Recommended Budget would mean “business as usual”.

While he was reluctant to state publicly what crimes would not be prosecuted he specifically stated that there would be new restricted prosecution policies and estimated a 45% reduction in misdemeanor prosecutions. Currently, the District Attorney’s Office reviews 20,000 misdemeanor complaints and files 11,000 cases annually. District Attorney Robert Kochly told the Board of Supervisors that the Recommended Budget would allow for only “core” misdemeanors to be prosecuted and stated that 45% of misdemeanors that would normally be prosecuted would no longer be reviewed or filed.

On April 20th, new Filing Policies were issued to law enforcement agencies including 17 City Police Chiefs, the Sheriff, and 170 District Attorney staff members, to be effective May 4, 2009. The information concerning the new Filing Policies for misdemeanor crimes was not released to the public or the media by District Attorney Robert Kochly. The District Attorney did not deliver the information, nor make it available to, any member of the media, nor did he condone or authorize anyone to release it to the media. It is unfortunate that the newly issued Filing Policies were subsequently distributed without restriction - raising fear in some and anger in others. District Attorney Kochly continues to steadfastly refuse to discuss particular types of crimes which will go unprosecuted, except for generic references to the fact that there are many misdemeanor crimes which the Department will not have the resources to prosecute.

Click here to view the video (13:40 min/55MB) of District Attorney’s, March 17th, 2009 budget presentation to the Board of Supervisors. The video record of the District Attorney’s comments at the March 17th Board of Supervisors meeting speak for themselves and we invite you to review it for yourself.

For audio-only, click here to listen to an MP3 (6.4MB) version of the presentation.

The mission of the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office is to seek justice and enhance public safety for all our residents by aggressively, fairly, ethically, and efficiently prosecuting those who violate the law.