District attorney race heats up between DA Tori Verber Salazar, Ron Freitas

California district attorneys are community leaders tasked with preventing crime, seeking justice and deciding who gets a second chance to turn their life around in a diversion program.

Because there are only two candidates for San Joaquin County District Attorney, the election will be decided from the June 7 primary, and the race between incumbent Tori Verber Salazar and challenger Ron Freitas is heating up.

Save the date: Here are a few to for about San Joaquin County's primary election

Where there’s power, there’s money

According to campaign finance statements, as of May 21, Freitas has received $177,000 in campaign contributions and spent more than $250,000 — the most of any local race on the June 7 ballot by far — outspending Verber Salazar by almost $180,000.

Freitas, 60, from Los Banos, is a Lodi Unified School District trustee and a San Joaquin County deputy district attorney, where he’s spent the past 34 years as a prosecutor. He called Verber Salazar’s administration a “radical social experiment.”

Verber Salazar, 56, was born and raised in Stockton — her father was a police officer, her mother, a civil rights activist. As DA for the past eight years, she said she’s focused on uplifting communities through protecting victims and criminal justice reform while holding those who commit harm in the community accountable.

Crime and punishment — and reform

Verber Salazar said her father’s view on criminal justice was ahead of his time. He wasn’t an advocate for jail or prison, she said, because he didn’t think it made people better. She said growing up her father would take the family to eat at the soup kitchen at the old St. Mary’s church in Stockton.

“He said, ‘You always need to remember that you’re just one bad day away from everything collapsing,’ ” Verber Salazar said. “He would say, ‘These people don’t need to be arrested or harassed, they need programs and services.’ I didn’t even know what that meant back then … how serious abuse, addiction, alcoholism and mental health were and how we needed to heal them versus isolate, shame and punish them.”

As district attorney, her work to reduce recidivism — the rate at which a convicted criminal will commit another crime — has revolved around intervention with wrap-around services and programs. She said if every person were to be released from jail or prison today, 70% would be back within the first 36 months.

The recidivism rate for those who go through Project Navigate Constructive Change — an alternative to incarceration for juveniles and young adults who are charged with a minor felony — is down to 15-30%. The program has been awarded $5 million from the state for its success, and Verber Salazar hopes to see the lock-up alternative implemented throughout California.

“Taking violent people and putting them in a violent situation and expecting them to become less violent … it’s just not working that well,” Verber Salazar said. “A lot of times when you sit down and talk with (victims) and explain the process, they just want the best program to make sure this person doesn’t cause harm.”

The DA’s Family Justice Center — a one-stop healing shop for victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault, child and elder abuse — connected 20,000 people to intervention services last year when homicides were down 30%. Verber Salazar’s administration has also cleared 45,000 records for community members with minor felony and drug convictions.

Freitas said he plans to bring common sense back to the DA’s office by getting tough on crime through a three-prong platform: violent offenders serving maximum sentences, fighting for victims with every tool the DA’s office has and breaking the playground to prison pipeline through real intervention strategies.

“As the head of homicide (department) for at least eight years, one of the things that I saw was that no one that I’d ever prosecuted for murder had ever graduated from high school,” Freitas said. “I’d like to focus on getting kids out of the system at an earlier age as opposed to chasing after individuals farther down in their career.”

Freitas’ candidate statement says there will be no more “get out of jail free” cards on his watch, something Verber Salazar said is a false promise to the community. The district attorney does not have jurisdiction over the jail. A judge can order an incarcerated person released to make room for, in theory, a more violent offender.

“Until we actually address crime and not use word games or semantics and change the definition of crime, we’re not going to be successful,” Freitas said. “We should be doing great things but not be one of the worst five communities to live in in the United States. That’s where we’ve stayed during the last eight years of the current administration.”

Choosing sides

In 2014 when Verber Salazar was first elected as DA, she won decisively with about 79% of the vote against Gary Hickey. Verber Salazar had the support and endorsements of local law enforcement agencies.

Eight years and 23 police officer prosecutions later — including a September 2021 maximum sentence conviction of county correctional officer Zachary Simmons for sexually assaulting inmates, a case Verber Salazar called one of the most important in the nation last year — the script has flipped and law enforcement endorsements and campaign contributions are flocking to Freitas.

ICYMI: San Joaquin County Jail officer indicted by grand jury for sexual assault crimes

“I respect and I work with law enforcement every day and I have the privilege of seeing the great work they’re capable of doing,” Verber Salazar said. “In 2017, an officer got confrontational with me and said, ‘Why are you prosecuting us? We supported you.’ I said, ‘No, we never had a quid pro quo’ … I said, ‘I’ll tell you right here and now, in 2017, I will never ask for your endorsement or money again.’ ”

While Verber Salazar still has the support of some in law enforcement, in her experience, openly soliciting endorsements and money from law enforcement agencies and organizations poses an ethical issue as district attorney when holding law enforcement accountable is in the job description. She said she’s lobbied for legislation to bar DA candidates from accepting endorsements and contributions from law enforcement.

“How do you tell the community a year from now when you’re the district attorney and you have a critical officer involved criminal case that needs to be charged, that you’re going to be fair and unbiased when your entire campaign is based on that relationship (with law enforcement?)” Verber Salazar said.

Freitas has touted his support from law enforcement organizations such as the Stockton Police Officers Association and has received $4,900, the maximum individual contribution to local races allowed under new California state law, from the San Joaquin County Correctional Officers PAC.

“I’m endorsed by all the first responders, Stockton fire, Manteca, Tracy, Lodi, Lathrop fire associations, because they know that I can bring real change and common sense to our community,” Freitas said. “And with that, we can make our community safe and succeed.”

Freitas has also received the maximum campaign contribution from State Assemblymember Carlos Villapudua, who publicly called for the Attorney General to take over prosecution for Sammy Nunez — founder of nonprofit Fathers & Families of San Joaquin who was arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a child — over a perceived conflict-of-interest with Verber Salazar.

ICYMI: Citing conflict, Stockton assemblyman asks attorney general to take over Nunez prosecution

The DA’s office oversaw dispersing some funding that went to Fathers & Families of San Joaquin. The nonprofit that offered guidance to at-risk youths, parenting instruction, gang intervention and leadership development programs has since ceased operations. Verber Salazar has said no conflict of interest exists, as has the Attorney General’s office.

May surprises

On May 24, the NAACP Stockton Branch surfaced a federal judge’s ruling that Freitas had illegally struck Black jurors based on race. The 2009 published decision reviewed a 2000 shooting case where Freitas illegally used peremptory challenges — a tool for attorneys to excuse a certain number of jurors without offering a reason — to strike all African American potential jurors from service.

Freitas told The Record his actions in the 2000 case were upheld by a trial court, a court of appeals, the California Supreme Court and a federal court. Verber Salazar said the final published opinion was buried and never disclosed by her predecessor, Jim Willett, who Freitas said has endorsed his campaign.

“Nobody knew about it,” Verber Salazar said. “My predecessor should have immediately removed him from office. Racism can thrive where people are allowed to behave in such a manner and not be held accountable.”

Last month, the District Attorney’s portion of the San Joaquin County Attorney’s Association voted 35-7 for no confidence in Verber Salazar. Less than half of the attorneys at the District Attorney’s office employees chose to vote on the question of if they had confidence in Verber Salazar’s ability to effectively manage the office.

San Joaquin County Attorney’s Association President and San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Don Vaughn, who has has donated to Freitas’ campaign, announced the vote, which was said to be apolitical.

"(It) mirrors the vote of no confidence taken by the rank and file against the poster boys for 'let's baby criminals just give them a light slap on the wrist' version of criminal 'justice' being practiced by George Gascón in Los Angeles and Chesa Boudin in San Francisco," Freitas said in a campaign statement.  "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Mrs. Verber had their posters up in her office."

Verber Salazar said the 35 attorneys that now know Freitas has been determined to be racist by a federal judge might reconsider that vote.

“I have to listen and will listen to the 35 people who are unhappy,” Verber Salazar said, “but I also have to listen to the 60 who come to work every day and are proud of the work that they do."

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Record reporter Ben Irwin covers Stockton and San Joaquin County government. He can be reached at birwin@recordnet.com or on Twitter @B1rwin. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at recordnet.com/subscribenow. 

This article originally appeared on The Record: District Attorney race heats up between Tori Verber Salazar, Ron Freitas