Deputy gets angry at DA’s plea deals

I was a deputy working for the county— under the Sheriff.

We used to arrest guys, take them to the local jail, and then turn in all the correct paperwork. Everything was always in order, always done the right way. That’s how I was trained.

But I got tired of the local DA taking our info, telling the perpetrators what we had on them (and the legal sentence they deserved), and then making plea deals for lesser sentences.

That never made sense to me. It was all a lie— a big sham. A plea deal for a “lesser crime” means—

•  The DA lied to the judge about what we caught the perp doing.
•  The perp lied about what he / she did, pleading guilty to a crime they didn't actually commit.

The truth was/is lost in the shuffle.

Offering plea deals certainly made the DA’s conviction numbers go up— and it statistically made him look better.

At the same time, people admitted to things they never did— lesser crimes— rather than going to court for THE THING they actually got arrested for.

“It looks good on the stats,” he said.

Rather than taking the risks of losing a case— by trying the actual crime— he wanted the “sure bet.” He preferred the lie.

He told me, “The perpetrator gets a lesser sentence for a lesser crime. We get them off the street. We don’t have to go to court, and we’re assured they won’t be out there hurting more innocent people.”

I wanted to throat punch him.

I would rather honestly “try” the criminal for the thing they did— not agree to a lesser crime they didn’t do, just so we could maintain a higher conviction rate and move them towards probation or drug court instead of actual time. Playing with your stats rather than serving people in the right way and cleaning up the city is pure bull… well, you know.

We started executing “street justice” to make sure they never got before the DA. Or, if they did, at least we had already exacted some of our justice.

I rationalized all of it, thinking that I shouldn’t keep putting my life on the line just so they could mess around with the facts…

… but it still doesn’t sit right with me, even though it logically felt like a better option.