D.A. tackles big-city crime in wine country
As county's first woman district attorney, Jill Ravitch aims to boost help for victims
District attorneys dedicate their work to ridding the community of crime. They charge and seek to convict guilty criminals after police collect sufficient evidence of crimes. They bring the full power of the government to bear against a citizen who harms others. But the best district attorneys preserve a keen sense that the power of the government sometimes goes astray. In rare cases the government wrongfully arrests and charges innocent people: justice miscarries with horrible destructive consequences.
"Once is enough," says Jill Ravitch, who took office in January 2011 as Sonoma County's first woman district attorney following 32 men in the position. "When I was doing defense work I represented innocent people. It really impressed upon me what an impact that can have on someone's life. It happens more than we'd like."
"It's one of the things I impress on attorneys here," Ravitch says. "There are instances where innocent people get pulled into the system. It's incumbent on us to make sure they have all the protection and review necessary to ensure they don't get ensnared wrongfully. We make sure the good guys don't get wrongfully charged."
That doesn't mean she's soft on crime or that she won't aggressively fight criminal conduct. "On the other side of it you work with victims whose lives are destroyed," Ravitch says. "We are a voice for the victims. It's an important role. We have to be diligent. It's also a fun job!"
Plainly she savors the role as well as the work. "Being district attorney is such an honor," Ravitch says. "Sonoma County is a fantastic place to live." She has called the county home for 21 years.
It's a challenging balance, this highly public role of district attorney. The job requires as much political savvy as legal acumen. Most essential is an unflappable sense of fairness, a rudder forged of personal ethics that allows Ravitch to navigate a roiling sea of cases. Each year police bring her office nearly 25,000 cases. In about half those cases, charges will be filed.
"Innocent people get pulled into the system. It's incumbent on us to make sure they . . . don't get ensnared wrongfully."
Decisions about which cases to pursue tend to shape public policy. For instance, in the first months of holding office Ravitch charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter a college student who allegedly was using her cell phone when she drove her car through a crosswalk and killed a two-year-old girl.
In another case a couple was hit in a Santa Rosa crosswalk. Ravitch met with an organization representing sight-impaired people to discuss pedestrian safety. "People need to pay attention on the road," she says. "I'm a bicyclist, so I'm very mindful of this. There are times when I will just pull off the road. But imagine being blind in a crosswalk with the signal in your favor and getting mowed down. It's frightening not only to people who are hit but to everyone else in the community."
Ravitch decided in her late twenties that she wanted to attend law school to become a prosecutor. She passed the California bar exam 24 years ago then spent several years with the Alameda district attorney's office tackling crime in downtown Oakland. "A lot of murders, rapes, robberies," Ravitch recalls. "We have big-city crime in Sonoma County now, unfortunately." She points to a recent spate of three homicides in a 10-day span.
Despite this rash of violence, the county has far less crime than Oakland, she notes. "We look out for one another" in the community, she observes, "but we have gang problems, environmental problems."
Ravitch took a break from prosecution and worked as a criminal defense attorney and civil litigator for a few years. Yet criminal prosecution truly captures her spirit. "I like to help people and do the right thing," Ravitch says. "I can't think of a better job. We get paid to do the right thing. I love all of it."
She puts special emphasis on pushing people to do the right thing when it comes to driving while intoxicated. "I have prosecuted plenty of people under the influence who have taken others' lives," Ravitch says. "It's extremely reckless."
She misses being on the street handling cases, but has selected a murder trial on which she will act as lead attorney. "I work with lawyers discussing strategy on their cases," she says.
The state is transferring more responsibility and funding to counties to fight criminal repeat offenders. "It's an exciting time in criminal justice," she says. "We are remaking the whole model. The emphasis is on rehabilitation, job training, helping the offender to get out of the system and back into the community. Being a prosecutor doesn't mean always wanting to send somebody away. It means keeping our community safe in the best way possible."
"I can't think of a better job. We get paid to do the right thing. I love all of it."
Ravitch supervises 47 attorneys and a total staff of 112. She also manages a victim witness center and a team of 14 investigators. Her job usually starts when police finish their investigation and turn over a case report. Sometimes police ask her office to help in a case, such as homicide, especially with obtaining search warrants.
"I wish I were better with numbers," Ravitch says. "The budget process challenges me. I'm not an economist, not a CPA." She laughs. The office budget is about $22 million. "Very different skill set to run a district attorney's office than to be a member of it. As manager of a large office, there are many opinions under this roof. It's a challenging job."
Aside from crunching numbers, she had to shrink them. On her eighth day in office, the county told her to slash her office's budget by 25 percent. "That's a tall order for somebody on their eighth day in office."
"Politics is very challenging for me," Ravitch says. "I'm not a politician. I have become such a public figure." She strives for impartiality and declines endorsements for other political candidates.
"It was difficult coming in as an outsider," she says. "I ran against an incumbent. I have been working hard to earn their respect and trust," she says of staff members. "My job is to inspire them to want to come to work tomorrow and do the best job they can. They need to help me understand how to inspire them."
"There was a certain level of apprehension," she acknowledges. "Change is difficult in any arena. People were wondering, but I got a great reception."
"I have a better sense of who I am," Ravitch says of her first six months in office. She ran once previously and didn't land the job. She worked for 15 years as deputy district attorney under other leaders in the same office.
Ravitch finds her position more conservative than that of some staff members. "There are those in the office with whom I disagree philosophically on a variety of levels," she says, chuckling. "Gang violence, sexual assault, marijuana prosecution, drug prosecution in general."
Where people cultivate marijuana without violence or guns involved, her interest in prosecution runs low. "The law is gray in that area," she says. "When you run into people doing it for profit, arming themselves," that's a different scenario. "Imagine someone breaking into your house because they are really after your neighbor's marijuana. That's a frightening situation. A lot of people have been killed or injured over that."
"Imagine someone breaking into your house because they are really after your neighbor's marijuana. That's a frightening situation."
Some cases trigger personal angst. "When you see a young person who is charged with a crime that could take their liberty for many, many years, and they've never been in trouble before, you struggle with accountability, public safety, you have to be mindful of rehabilitation. Is this somebody we can salvage? Can they be directed into a productive life? That's particularly true in our juvenile system with kids."
Some programs aim to keep young people out of gangs and away from drugs and alcohol. A new family justice center will coordinate services for victims of family violence.
In Sonoma County law enforcement, Ravitch is a job pioneer. "When I meet young women who are looking at possible career choices, they are entranced with the notion that I'm the first female D.A.," she says. "When I go to meetings with all the chiefs of law enforcement agencies, myself and the chief at Sonoma State police department, we're the only women in the room. Law enforcement traditionally is a male-dominated field. But women have made great strides. It's an exciting career."
Out of 58 district attorneys in California, 11 are now women, including Sacramento and San Diego.
"My goal is to put myself out of work," Ravitch says. "Wouldn't it be great if we didn't need a D.A.'s office?" She laughs. "I think I'll be here for awhile."
—James Dunn
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