From the Hagen campaign:
District Attorney candidate Paul Hagen has been endorsed by the Sierra Club.
“Mr. Hagen had much success during his eight years as the circuit environmental prosecutor for Humboldt, Del Norte, and Lake Counties. His work has shown that environmental issues are important to him. Paul has the best environmental record of the candidates” said the Sierra Club.
The Sierra Club is the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded in 1892 by the well-known conservationist and preservationist John Muir. The Sierra Club has hundreds of thousands of members in chapters located throughout the country.
“Earning the endorsement of the Sierra Club is a great honor,” said Hagen. “Protecting public health and safety through the enforcement of our environmental laws is a very important job of the District Attorney’s office, and I’m very grateful for this recognition by the Sierra Club.”
Hagen served as a prosecutor for more than eleven years in four North Coast District Attorney offices and has successfully prosecuted a wide variety of criminal and civil cases. Press releases and other information about some of these cases are posted on the Hagen campaign website, www.hagenforda.com.
18 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 24, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Anonymous
Paul did a great job in the DA candidates debate at the ACLU forum. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have enough money to mount a serious challenge. It will come down to jackson and Gallegos after the primary.
April 25, 2010 at 8:27 am
Anonymous
Of the four Hagen is the most progressive candidate. He is probably the most liberal candidate for DA the north coast has ever seen.
April 25, 2010 at 8:47 am
Eric Kirk
Not saying you’re wrong or right, but what does that mean in this case?
April 25, 2010 at 9:47 am
Heraldo
Let’s start with why he’s more liberal than Jackson. Can someone explain?
April 25, 2010 at 10:13 am
Eric Kirk
Hmmmm. Well,I haven’t seen the whole ACLU debate yet. I’m about half way through. But he did oppose zero tolerance school policies absolutely, which is a little bit of a bellwether issue. The other candidates declined comment on the issue.
On non-DA related issues, I’ve had enough personal conversations with both Pauls to comfortably label both liberals, but I don’t feel comfortable posting here on the details of private conversations. That’s why Paul G.’s position against revisions of the three strikes law surprised me. Maybe it’s a perspective he acquired in his position, or maybe it’s one issue on which he simply takes a more law and order view.
Paul Hagen is very passionate about environmentalism and specifically the rigorous enforcement of environmental laws. In his KMUD/CLMP interview he discussed his felony conviction of a prominent figure in Clear Lake who dumped stuff into the lake, after the Federal District prosecutor refused the case. Assuming that’s accurate, it does say something about his passion.
Gallegos has also taken on the big boys (and girls). He’s lost most of those high profile cases, but maybe that’s not the point. He probably could have done better for himself politically by avoiding those cases.
There are other issues I don’t want to discuss because I haven’t clarified them yet, but I have not made up my mind in this race. I really like both Pauls as individuals, and actually from what I know of them, I think I’d like the two women as well. Bryson is actually surprising me with some of the stands she’s taking.
That’s the best I can do on the question. I guess there are plenty more debates to come to flesh the issues out.
April 25, 2010 at 11:38 am
Heraldo
Maybe it is. Unless we should be satisfied with symbolism rather than justice.
Thanks for your comments. An expanded version of my question is on the Humboldt Herald.
April 25, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Reporta
Speaking of high-profile cases, Hagen did blotch the Wal-Mart lawsuit in Crescent City, though he attributes it to “archaic” laws and deception by the lawyers of Wal-Mart.
April 25, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Eric Kirk
Speaking of high-profile cases, Hagen did blotch the Wal-Mart lawsuit in Crescent City, though he attributes it to “archaic” laws and deception by the lawyers of Wal-Mart.
He takes full responsibility for missing the deadline.
April 25, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Anonymous
Hagen may be somewhat liberal, but would he have the spine that Gallegos has shown, in taking on the Powers-that-be?
No elected officials and certainly no DA dared challenge Maxxam before Gallegos was elected (and they wouldn’t even vote to give him the tools to carry through on that when he did), and they certainly never took on law enforcement. Gallegos has filed charges against two different Chiefs of Police.
How much proof do you need that he’s the guy you want in that job? Who are you people that would even suggest trading him in for some unknown, who promises to be “less contentious”?
I have no problem supporting Gallegos.
(never mind that Hagen’s only ever tied a single felony and that Jackson is any civil libertarians nightmare.)
April 25, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Anonymous
[Gallegos has also taken on the big boys (and girls). He’s lost most of those high profile cases, but maybe that’s not the point. He probably could have done better for himself politically by avoiding those cases.]
Gallegos had two high profile cases thrown out prior to going to trial, PL and Douglas. He got a felony conviction against Police Chief Gunderson. Of his other criminal trials, I’ve read of between 15 to 18 of them since he took office and they have all ended in convictions, save for one hung jury.
Whatever you think of his policies, he win/loss track record is very impressive.
And I agree, that Hagen does take full responsibility for missing the deadline for what was basically his only private client at the time (with the exception of his attorney-of-record clients like the City of Trinidad), but does that make it any less egregious?
One felony case in his career, no non-enviromential criminal trial experience, either as a DA or as a defense attorney. No real success in private practice, even after four years.
You really want to turn over the DA’s office to someone with this thin of a track record?
At the very least Erik, you could do us the service of talking to some of his colleagues in Mendocino that worked with him in that DA’s office. That would be truly informative, offering us insights we can not get by listening to the debates.
April 25, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Anonymous
[ In his KMUD/CLMP interview he discussed his felony conviction of a prominent figure in Clear Lake who dumped stuff into the lake, after the Federal District prosecutor refused the case. Assuming that’s accurate, it does say something about his passion.]
He discussed that case in detail at his announcement event also
He seems to bring that one up a lot. I think it is becoming the infamous one (1) felony case of his career. It may have been a good case, but please, that’s it? He wants to be in charge of criminal prosecutions for the entire county.
The DA’s office is mostly not about environmental prosecution. That is an area you hire just one specialists for, and lets not forget, Hagen was fired from that job! BTW, I see that both of his former bosses at that job (LaBahn and Filter), have endorsed Gallegos.
We should also be concerned that his lack of qualifications would make him vulnerable to lose to Jackson, who is anything but liberal. Jackson thinks the cops can do no wrong. She is a proud member of the Thin Blue Line. We need a DA who will police the police and that is the one thing you can’t take away from Gallegos (and boy do they hate him for it!).
April 25, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Anonymous
Here is a list of the people Gallegos has lost since he came in.
DDA Ed Borg
DDA Worth Dikeman
DDA Frank Dunnick
DDA Eamon Fitzgerald
DDA Heather Gimle
DDA Paul Hagen
DDA Andrew Isaac
DDA Allison Jackson
DDA Elizabeth Norton
DDA Murat Ozgur
DDA Gloria Albin-Sheets
DDA Nandor Vadas
DDA Rob Wade
PLUS:
Investigator Chris Andrews
Investigator Chris Cook
Investigator Jim Dawson (retired)
Paul’s secretary Gail Dias
Office Manager Linda Modell
Investigator Eric Olson
Investigator Kathy Philp (retired)
Investigator Dave Rybarczyk
Investigator Dave Walker
PLUS from CAST:
Child Interview Specialist Laura Todd
Child Interview Specialist Gillian Wadsworth
Senior Legal Secretary Melissa Arnold
Alternate Child Interviewer Jennifer Maguire
April 25, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Eric Kirk
At the very least Erik, you could do us the service of talking to some of his colleagues in Mendocino that worked with him in that DA’s office. That would be truly informative, offering us insights we can not get by listening to the debates.
I haven’t had any conversations with his Mendocino colleagues. I’ve had conversations with some of his Humboldt colleagues. And I’ve had conversations with Paul G.’s colleagues. For a slew of reasons I wouldn’t repeat what I’ve heard on the blog, whether the input was positive or negative. I’m not an experienced journalist, and sorting the gossip and personal bias from the truth is not something I have the time to do right.
April 26, 2010 at 8:21 am
Dave Kirby
The problem with the D.A. ‘s office in most rural counties is the lack of experience and expertise among staff. Many DDAs are passing through on their way to more lucrative careers. I sat on a jury last year where the prosecution was so inept that when we asked to see the state’s main piece of physical evidence we found on close inspection that the prosecution’s version of the crime was impossible. It took us about 10 minutes to find the defendant not guilty. Would putting someone else in charge of the office change that? I doubt it. There are not a lot of Perry Masons standing in line to work for Humboldt County.
April 26, 2010 at 8:29 am
Dave Kirby
I will have to modify my previous statement. It isnt just rural counties that have trouble getting good people. Who can ever forget the Marsha Clark dog and pony show at O.J. Simpson’s criminal trial. “if the glove don’t fit you must aquit.”
April 26, 2010 at 10:26 am
Eric Kirk
Dave, you have to blame the LAPD for blowing the OJ case, proving that they were so inept they couldn’t frame a guilty man.
As for Perry Mason, he was a defense attorney, remember?
Susan Dey in LA Law – now SHE was a prosecutor!
April 26, 2010 at 11:04 am
moviedad
Ah, Susan; my favorite Partridge.
April 26, 2010 at 12:56 pm
ED Denson
Anonymous lists people Gallegos has “lost” since he came into office. Kirby is correct, of course, that Humboldt county is not high on the pay scale for DDAs (would you like fewer but better paid DDAs?) and this creates turnover problems. Some people on the list simply got better jobs – Nandor Vadas became a judge, for instance. Others were not necessarily people you would want to have on your staff. The fact that someone used to work for the DA doesn’t necessarily mean that it is bad that they don’t do that any more.
As long as you are making a list, anonymous, how about a list of the present DDAs – people that Gallegos has “found.” That might be just as meaningful.