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Carson vs Fladager, by Bruce Frohman

December 5, 2013 By Bruce Frohman 8 Comments

Birgit Fladager
Birgit Fladager

Next year, an election will be held to either affirm the job District Attorney Birgit Fladager is doing for the citizens of Stanislaus County or to replace her with criminal defense attorney Frank Carson, who has already announced that he is running for the job. One way to evaluate the upcoming contest is to view it from the perspective of those who have been inside the office.

DA Birgit Fladager is seen by some as projecting a soft spoken image with an iron core inside.  She is strong willed and brilliant as an attorney, with outstanding legal knowledge and instincts.

The only criticism of DA Fladager is a weakness held by most attorneys: administrative organization.  She has a great group of dedicated employees. However, there is some disagreement within the ranks about the system of rewards and recognition.

Some employees are seen as rewarded beyond accomplishment, while other deserving employees feel overlooked. This is a management issue described by employee groups of many agencies, so this criticism may be viewed with some degree of skepticism. There is not an inordinate amount of grumbling or infighting.  In the main, the staff works well together.

Ms. Fladager made positive points with her staff when she invited skeptical Stanislaus County Supervisors into her office to look closely at the work her employees perform. Criticism of the office by outsiders melted away after her initiative and staff has not forgotten her efforts in behalf of the department.

Boycott of a Judge

DA Fladager recently instructed her attorneys to routinely request a different judge when a certain judge is assigned to any criminal case. Despite public criticism about the order appearing in the press, some employees of the DA’s office agree that the order is a wise one.

The subject judge is said to be a political appointee of former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The judge had been the personal attorney of the former governor, specializing in civil law.  Because of his inexperience in criminal law, some of the judge’s orders issued in the Stanislaus County DA’s cases had to be appealed to a higher court in order to obtain a different ruling.  Invariably, the DA’s office would get the lower court ruling overturned on appeal. Therefore, by avoiding the judge, the DA’s office expects to save taxpayers money by reducing court costs and staff time. Fewer appeals would be needed simply by using other more experienced judges.

Frank Carson for District Attorney

When criminal defense attorney Frank Carson announced that he was running for District Attorney, Birgit Fladager held a staff meeting and gave instructions. She told the staff that political opposition would not affect the operation of the DA’s office. She said that she did not want any political activity within the office and that staff would comport themselves with the highest level of integrity.

Reportedly, about two days after the staff meeting, the law office of Frank Carson was burglarized. The sense of some staff members within the DA’s office is that the office was burglarized by someone with no ties to the DA’s office, someone who wanted to make it look like the DA’s office was involved in the burglary. The DA’s office has a number of unnamed political enemies, such as those who may have been prosecuted in the past.

Frank Carson’s Image Among District Attorney Office Employees

Over the years, Criminal Defense Attorney Frank Carson has developed a reputation within the DA’s office as a scrappy defense attorney. He fights vociferously with every means available to defend his clients. He has had personality difficulties with one or more employees in the DA’s office and presently has a lawsuit pending against one employee.

Some employees of the DA’s office suspect that if elected, Mr. Carson will be holding grudges that he may act on.  Depending on his inclination, he would be put into a position where he could damage the department because of the personal differences. This may be unfortunate should highly talented career employees decide to seek work elsewhere.

On the other hand, Mr. Carson is a brilliant and talented individual. He could make a positive difference. A big unknown would be administrative skills, which cannot easily be assessed based only on his courtroom work.  Upon assuming the job, he would need to display skill sets in the tasks of preparing and presenting budgets as well as managing people.

The Prosecution of Mayor Carmen Sabatino

When Birgit Fladager assumed office, she inherited the felony indictments of former Mayor Carmen Sabatino. The case had already been put together by her predecessor Jim Brazelton, at considerable cost and effort by the department staff.

Faced with a decision to proceed or discontinue the case, Ms. Fladager opted to proceed.  Rather than get involved in a political controversy and with no apparent animosity towards Mr. Sabatino, she decided to let the justice system run its course.  When the jury in the case could not reach a unanimous decision, Ms. Fladager decided not to devote any more resources to the case and did not choose to retry it.  Frank Carson was the attorney for Carmen Sabatino.

Filed Under: Featured, History Tagged With: Birgit Fladager, Frank Carson, Frank Carson versus Birgit Fladager, Stanislaus District Attorney's campaign

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. S. Hansen says

    December 9, 2013 at 5:14 pm

    We must all vote ABC & F in the next election…

    Anyone but Christianson & Fladager !!!

    Reply
  2. S. Hansen says

    December 9, 2013 at 5:35 pm

    Mr. Caine you consider Mr. Carson getting assaulted in the courthouse by Stanislaus County detective Steve “the Juice” Jacobson personality difficulties?! Wow…

    Where was District Attorney Brigit Fladager at when she heard of this incident? She must have been hiding under her desk because nothing was done in regards to this assault. I would venture to say that if some common folk from “off the block” assaulted an attorney, literally in the halls of justice, they would have been arrested and District Attorney Brigit Fladager would have charged them with everything in the book. But since a “good ol’ boy” was involved our “brilliant” DA with “outstanding legal knowledge and instincts” turned a blind eye.

    Just goes to show how justice is really meted out in good ol’ Scandalouslaus County…

    Reply
    • Eric Caine says

      December 9, 2013 at 6:37 pm

      The “Carson vs Fladager” story is by Bruce Frohman, one of our most informed Valley Citizens.

      Reply
      • S. Hansen says

        December 10, 2013 at 5:08 am

        Maybe you could ask Mr. Frohman to post a response to the questions I initially directed at you above…

        Reply
  3. Bruce Frohman says

    December 10, 2013 at 11:26 pm

    To S Hansen: Thanks for your excellent question and opportunity to make some clarifications. This article attempted to reflect the viewpoint of persons with knowledge of the DA’s Department and not the writer’s own opinions. Whether or not Mr. Carson was assaulted will be determined in court. As this writer was not present during the event, he declines to render a judgement regarding the merit of the lawsuit.

    One of the sources for the information in the above article indicated that the writer may have misunderstood the gist of comments made regarding the boycott of a judge. A more accurate statement would have been that questionable rulings by the judge were made that affected the prosecution, examples of which were previously reported in the Modesto Bee. The most recent example was the case reported by the Bee on November 7, 2013 when the judge recused a senior prosecutor from a murder case. The writer of the present article has insufficient legal background to evaluate the judge’s performance and has no opinion on the subject.

    One should further note that this article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of DA Birgit Fladager and should not be construed as such. Only information specifically released by the District Attorney can be considered official. The DA was not interviewed for this article. Sources requested anonymity.

    Reply
  4. Humphrey Bogart says

    October 22, 2015 at 5:58 am

    The ignorance of the citizens of the Central Valley knows no bounds. Frank Carson will be convicted of murder, the D.A. has already disclosed the Atwal brother using the term
    “murder” to describe why investigators were conducting search warrants at a time when Korey Kauffman was just “missing”. They tapped his telephone. Guilty mind – he himself used the term “murder” – he has convicted the lot of them OUT OF HIS OWN MOUTH. Read the affidavit, nitwits. Frank Carson is a thief and a murderous nut.

    Reply
  5. Humphrey Bogart says

    October 22, 2015 at 6:10 am

    Should read “conducting searches at the Atwal home & the Pop & Cork” not

    conducting “search warrants”.

    Reply
  6. Mark says

    August 5, 2018 at 2:40 am

    Well, this, after 5 years, certainly makes interesting reading in reflection of the hoopla and concocted Ramey warrant and all the other corruption that has come to light, given that every prosecution witness is a convicted felon on various forms of probation and all getting deals on active felony cases.. the fraud and corrution is overwhelmingly evident

    Reply

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