Blogger Berger Retracts Claim That Brown Has ‘Banned’ Appointments of DDAs to Los Angeles Superior Court

Thursday, July 24, 2014

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Blogger Berger Retracts Claim That Brown Has ‘Banned’ Appointments of DDAs to Los Angeles Superior Court

By a MetNews Staff Writer

A prosecutor/blogger yesterday retracted a report claiming that Gov. Jerry Brown has “banned” appointments of deputy district attorneys to the Los Angeles Superior Court, as a response to the election of 13 candidates from that office as judges on June 5.

A spokesperson for the governor Monday branded the post by “Joe Friday”—Deputy District Attorney David Berger—on losangelesdragnet.blogspot.com “pure fiction” and “factually challenged.” Those comments appeared in Tuesday’s MetNews.

Berger responded on his blog yesterday:

“In support of the Governor’s claims, the Dragnet was contacted by a DDA who also disputed the existence of any ban. ‘I have the utmost confidence in the appointment process, and do not believe there is any ban,’ the DDA said. ‘It is a long selection process and there are many qualified candidates.’ The DDA further referred the Dragnet to the recent appointment of deputy district attorneys in other counties.

“In the light of those comments we wish to make it clear that the comments attributed to the LA County DDA cited on July 21, 2014 regarding the Governor’s judicial appointment process are fully retracted. The comments were based on inaccurate and incorrect information from a third party. Attributing such comments to that DDA was a mistake and inconsistent with her/his temperament and character. This reporter apologies for not having looked into the alleged comments more carefully.”

Berger noted that in the latest round of superior court appointments—announced on Wednesday of last week—Brown appointed four deputy district attorneys from Orange, San Diego, Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties, out of 10 appointees total.

“The next round of judicial appointments will give the Governor the opportunity to prove that there is no ban on appointing LA County DDAs to judgeships,” he wrote. “Watch this space.”