close
close

Association-anemone

Bite-sized brilliance in every update

How many cases did Kamala Harris actually prosecute?
asane

How many cases did Kamala Harris actually prosecute?

How many cases has Kamala Harris actually prosecuted in a courtroom?

Despite her profile on California Attorney General’s website stating that he spent “his entire career in the trenches as a courtroom prosecutor,” the only available evidence shows that he tried between seven and 15 crimes.

These include a domestic violence scalpingone murder, armed robbery and two child sex crimes – although she claims to have taken hundreds of cases to court.

No records are available from any of these cases, and the only one that made the news was 1996 scalping case.

Harris began her career in Alameda County, where she was born, in 1989. In her book “The Truths We Hold,” she described being devastated that she failed the bar and might not be accepted into the department , but they allowed him to continue working with them until he finally passed in 1990.

She then served as an assistant district attorney in Alameda from 1990 to 1998 before moving across the bay to fill the same role in the San Francisco DA’s office.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office sent the Post a list of more than 60 names they said Harris prosecuted during his time there. However, they did not provide additional details about any of the cases, such as whether they were traffic tickets or serious misdemeanors, or whether she tried them in person in the courtroom.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, then 61, and Kamala Harris, then 30, when they started dating in 1994.

A 2003 San Francisco Bay Guardian article newspaper titled “Kamala Harris has a perfectly credible record. So why does he have to exaggerate?” quoted a source in the Alameda County district attorney’s office as saying it attempted “about 5 to 10 crimes” there and only two more in San Francisco.

Harris quickly rose through the ranks, successfully running for DA in San Francisco in 2003.

Until then, she was billed as a “veteran” prosecutor with “thirteen years of courtroom experience” who could overhaul the office.

“Kamala has tried hundreds of serious and violent crimes, including cases of murder, rape and child sexual assault,” a mailer published by her campaign claimed at the time.

Harris served as an assistant district attorney in Alameda County from 1990 to 1998 before joining the San Francisco County District Attorney’s Office. She was the managing attorney of the San Francisco Career Criminal Unit and was elected San Francisco District Attorney in 2004. Google Maps

Prosecutors may refer to the “prosecution” of a case which may variously mean that they oversee the prosecution but do not appear in the courtroom. To “try” a case means that you participate in the structured process.

Harris was immediately called out for exaggerating her prosecution caseas she was forced to admit in a debate with one of her rivals at the time, criminal lawyer Bill Fazio.

In a debate broadcast on KGO Radio Fazio, a Democrat, took it to task.

“How many cases have you tried? Can you tell us how many serious crimes you have attempted? Can you tell us one?” Fazio asked, according to audio of the debate.

“We tried about 50 cases. Mr. Fazio, and it’s about leadership,” Harris said, without elaborating.

“Ms Harris, why does your information, which is still being released, say you have attempted hundreds of serious crimes? I think it’s misleading. I think it’s dishonest. I think it shows that you are incapable of leadership and that you don’t trust yourself. You continue to spread information that says you have attempted hundreds of serious crimes,” Fazio pressed.

In the same year, in the same campaign for YES, she gave a different answer. At a meeting of the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club, attendees asked the same question about how many cases she prosecuted three times, according to the Bay Guardian.

Kamala Harris when she was a San Francisco District Attorney. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Harris admitted he tried “under 30” cases, but added that if you counted the misdemeanors, it was closer to 100, the media reported.

The San Francisco district attorney’s office did not respond to repeated requests for information about Harris’ prosecutorial record from The Post.

Today, even some of her past opponents are with her. A San Francisco attorney who clashed with Harris during his time in the DA’s office told The Post he doesn’t think Harris has a “high IQ,” but said he has never voted Democrat and therefore will vote.

He added that he believes Harris’ controversial 1994 romantic relationship with powerful San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown greased the wheels of Harris’ rise in the Bay Area.

Criminal lawyer Bill Fazio, once an assistant district attorney in San Francisco, called Harris when the two were battling the San Francisco DA. Fazio accused Harris of enriching the number of cases she actually tried in Alameda County and San Francisco. commons.wikimedia.org

Fazio – whose Twitter bio still claims he’s “the only* candidate for San Francisco district attorney to try a murder in a SF courtroom” — he himself told The Post this week that he strongly supports Kamala and voted for her both in the race for attorney general as well as for the Senate.

“To be fair, it wasn’t her specifically saying she tried ‘hundreds’ of cases, it was her campaign literature that did,” Fazio argued.

Fazio, who worked as an assistant district attorney in San Francisco before going into private practice, said he once tried eight murder cases in one year.

“Harris probably should have tried six to eight cases a year when he was in Alameda County,” Fazio said. “I know he tried at least two cases when he was (deputy DA) in San Francisco.”

Fazio accused Harris of overstating her trial record, but told The Post that he had supported her for years — voting for her to be attorney general and senator. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Harris was photographed in 2010 when she was campaigning to become California Attorney General A?

Harris-Walz campaign spokesman James Singer downplayed the 2003 controversy in a statement first given to ABC News.

“Vice President Harris oversaw and was involved in the prosecution of hundreds of serious crimes before she was elected San Francisco District Attorney,” Singer said.

“For more than a decade, she prosecuted child sexual assault, homicide and robbery cases in Alameda, before overseeing the career criminal unit and serving as chief of the family and children division in the U.S. District Attorney’s office San Francisco.”

“That’s what mattered to San Francisco voters more than two decades ago and why she was elected DA.”

Former Justice Department special agents who worked under Harris when he was attorney general from 2011 to 2017 told The Post recently that Harris’ claims that transnational drug or gang cases were “personally tried” were not true.

They say she only led the arrests made by any number of state and federal agencies during her tenure. They say she merely presided over arrests made by any number of state and federal agencies during her tenure.