Did Kellie Johnson really win 200-plus criminal trials?
A person who used to work with Multnomah County district attorney candidate Kellie Johnson wrote us yesterday to question her campaign claim that "she won over 200 trials, locking up drug dealers, gang members, domestic abusers and scam artists." The reader, who claims to be knowledgable about her career as an assistant prosecutor, thinks that "she's including stipulated-facts drug trials in that tally." As the reader explains it, most stipulated-facts trials are more like guilty pleas than what most people would think of as a real trial. The defendant admits all the facts necessary to find him or her guilty.
| Posted at 7:42 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (8)
Almost a Nancy Grace.
Posted by boycat | July 26, 2011 8:00 AM
In this era of I am what I say I am her embellishment is almost a requirement.
Posted by Ben | July 26, 2011 8:46 AM
A little fuzzy, but at least she's not counting ex parte in the tally...
Posted by NEPguy | July 26, 2011 8:55 AM
Maybe it should be 200-plus or minus...
Posted by Ralph Woods | July 26, 2011 9:07 AM
How long did she work at the Multnomah County DA's Office?
I suppose if she throws in some probation violation hearings then she has her 200.
Posted by Thor | July 26, 2011 9:27 AM
Throw in the times she second-chaired a trial for another ADA plus responses to motions to suppress and she can boost those stats to 300-plus.
Posted by jmh | July 26, 2011 9:32 AM
Stipulated facts trials still need to be negotiated prior to trial. When the trial lawyers get this done it saves us all big bucks and time. I would count those as a win for the young lass mentioned.
Posted by Gibby | July 26, 2011 11:02 AM
While a Deputy DA in rural Oregon (a decade ago), my trial frequency was very low compared to colleagues in the big counties. But even there, I could get about 2 trials a month (with juries and everything). I think Kellie was a Dep. DA for 13 years (though not all in Multnomah). My guess that it would be very easy to get 200 trials in less than 10 years. Plus, the odds are stacked in the DA's favor in most trials, so they tend to win a lot more than they lose.
Posted by JB | July 26, 2011 5:17 PM