I’m running for district attorney in the 6th District so my neighbors will live in the safest place in the state. I have 18 years of overall criminal law experience and prosecuted well over 60 jury trials. I have 15 years of experience managing law offices, including five years as assistant district attorney, two years as city attorney and eight years as a manager in a large law firm.

I am the assistant district attorney for Christian Hatfield, 22nd Judicial District attorney based in Cortez. I made rural Colorado my home in 2005 and live with my family in La Plata County. I have successfully prosecuted thousands of cases, from racketeering to murder. My approach to prosecution is to be “smart on crime,” diverting cases that can be best stabilized within the community and allocating prosecution resources to crimes affecting community safety.

The current administration in the 6th has struggled to retain attorneys, with a 100% turnover rate in recent years. I have maintained over a 90% retention rate as a manager, and I will provide leadership to retain competent attorneys capable of prosecuting complicated crimes and make the 6th a destination for successful attorneys.

I’ll provide the necessary culture change to prevent wrongful convictions, such as in State v. Fitts, where prosecuting attorney, Sean Murray, intimidated 19-year-old Anthony Fitts into pleading guilty to a crime he did not commit by overcharging, threatening life in prison, and failing to allow the facts to be fully investigated.

The result was nearly a year of incarceration, exoneration and a taxpayer funded payout of $64,000 to compensate Fitts for his unlawful incarceration in prison for a crime he was innocent of committing. Devon Bond, co-defendant of Fitts, was also threatened with the same but he did not yield to Murray. Bond’s defense attorney worked diligently and after 19 months of Bond sitting in jail, at the expense of taxpayers, evidence was finally revealed in court, which resulted in dismissal of Bond and Fitts’ cases.

Christopher Clark, another defendant threatened with an extreme sentence by Murray, has a similar story, while sitting in jail for six months for a crime he did not commit. Attorneys under my management only file charges based on provable facts. I also have a conviction review policy in the 22nd District to review cases like Fitts,’ where defendants asserting innocence can make a request to have their cases reviewed and defendants who were wrongfully convicted can be exonerated if they are truly innocent.

I will bring the same policies to the 6th to prevent wrongful convictions and correct past transgressions.