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Thursday, September 03, 2009
Repeat Offenders Targeted
By T.J. Wilham
Journal Staff Writer
The city of Albuquerque will start paying the District Attorney's Office $275,000 to prosecute repeat offenders.
At a joint news conference Wednesday, Mayor Martin Chávez and Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg announced that a team of prosecutors will be formed targeting suspects who have multiple convictions. The city will provide funding for the team for one year.
The team will be made up of two attorneys and one civilian.
Chávez said funding for the unit will come from the city's general fund. The City's Council has yet to approve the funding. The mayor provided no details of how the money would be raised.
"We want repeat offenders behind bars," Chávez said. "If they are not going to learn their lesson ... we want them behind bars."
One of Chávez's opponents in the October mayoral election, Richard Berry, issued a statement after the news conference saying the announcement was "disingenuous."
"This is nothing more than a $275,000 smokescreen," Berry said in the statement. "In the last weeks of the campaign, Chávez is scrambling to appear tough on crime in the hope that voters will forget his record, but after 12 years as mayor, he has been unable to solve the problem."
Police Chief Ray Schultz has publicly lashed out against the judicial system calling, it a "revolving door" for criminals and announcing that criminals in Albuquerque have "rap books instead of rap sheets."
A year ago, Schultz and Chávez criticized the judicial system and prosecutors for accepting "sweet plea deals" for repeat offenders. Chávez also called for legislation that would prevent prosecutors from reaching plea agreements that dismiss sentencing enhancements for repeat offenders.
At the time, Chávez's office released data that showed then-District Attorney Jeff Romero sought the repeat offender sentencing enhancement 839 times in 2000, a year before Brandenburg took office. The data also showed that Brandenburg sought enhanced sentencing more than 241 times in 2008, the most she has done so since taking office in 2001. She pursued it 104 times in 2001.
The legislation never made its way through the Roundhouse.
The issue was also highlighted in last year's election when Brandenburg's Republican opponent, Lisa Torraco, lashed out against Brandenburg for the way she handled repeat offender cases.
Brandenburg said her office has "gone after" 16,000 repeat offenders, and their sentences have been enhanced.
She said the new unit will help her continue to crack down.
"This will give us more resources to go after repeat offenders," Brandenburg said. "I am very optimistic that we will be able to keep repeat offenders behind bars for longer, and it will positively effect public safety."
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