Friday, August 19, 2016

ROUND 6: (FERRERO/JAKMIDES SERIES) JAKMIDES MAKES THE MOST ON: "OPPOSITION RESEARCH"

UPDATED AT 09:40 AM

ARE STARK COUNTY STREETS
LESS SAFE
(PLEA BARGAINING)
(DROPPED CASES)
WITH
JOHN FERRERO
AS
COUNTY PROSECUTOR?


Republican Jeff Jakmides wants to be "your Stark County prosecutor."

And he is going "all out" to make his case to voters of Stark County.

From what The Stark County Political Report sees there is a vast "on the merits of it" difference between Jakmides and sitting Democratic prosecutor John Ferrero.

And The Report is always impressed candidates for public office who have shown themselves to be highly accomplished experientially, knowledge-wise, demeanor, temperament with respect to the office they seek.

Moreover, The Report gauges candidates on basic democratic-republican values such as accessibility, accountability, communicativeness (with everyday citizens), ethics, openness, and transparency.

The biggy here is that John Ferrero does not prosecute in the sense of being an "in the courtroom" prosecutor.

And it appears that Ferrero's office doesn't much like taking cases to trial either.

That is if you take stock in the "opposition research" done by the Jakmides' campaign.

The campaign has compiled a 1-1/2 inch, more or less, three-ring-binder on the prosecutorial activity of the Ferrero-led Stark County prosecutor's office for the year 2015.

Some of the "demands answers" Jakmides generated supporting data contained in the binder—in terms of quality of prosecutorial work under being done on Ferrero's watch—is presented in pdf file format included below in this blog.

SCPR NOTE:  The Report would ask Prosecutor Ferrero to respond to the picture that the 2015 data paints, but he mostly (especially, of late) refuses to respond to questions put to him.

Ferrero has reportedly said there is an explanation for all the actions of his team of prosecutors in massaging the Grand Jury indictments to be something other than what the grand jurors indicted for.

The SCPR for one invites Prosecutor to go line by line in the following extracts of the list that the Jakmides campaign team spent considerable time and effort assembling and for the benefit of the voting Stark County public so they can determine whether or not they have been effectively served in their personal safety by the Stark County criminal justice system of which the county prosecutor is a key if not the preeminent factor of.

Whatever time and space Mr. Ferrero needs including "unlimited" video time or in any other format of his choosing will be made available by the SCPR to him so that he can explain "the chapter and verse" reasons why the Grand Jury's work in large part was nullified in 2015 with his specific approval.

An important definition on the pdf files inserted in the blog below:



MURDER CHARGES



RAPE CHARGES



REPEAT VIOLENT OFFENDERS



MAJOR DRUG OFFENDER (MANDATORY EXTRA PRISON TIME)



FIREARMS SPECIFICATION (MANDATORY EXTRA PRISON TIME)



OVI ("DUI") REPEAT OFFENDER (LIKELY STIFFER SENTENCE)



REMANDS

SCPR Note:  Jakmides says that a number of the remands are on felony domestic violence because the offender has been previously charged.  He adds that the way more speedy "direct indictments" process likely would result in more prosecutions on these charges because, given a considerable lapse of time, victims are more likely to become uncooperative.



  • Five murder indictments, Jakmides says, "nobody was convicted of murder,"
  • On rape cases, Jakmides says, a guy accused of rape of a seven and eleven year old "got two years,
  • Taking gun specifications out of cases,
  • Reduced mandatory sentences in bargaining down major drug cases,
Jakmides is saying that Ferrero is the worst prosecutor in the history of Stark County and documenting his case in support of that opinion is what the aforementioned binder is all about.

In the way of contrast, Jakmides points to Jim Unger, who served as a prosecutor in the office from 1963 through 1983 as has the "elected" prosecutor 1977 through 1983, as his model for how a prosecutor should conduct himself.

Jim Unger was an "above reproach" prosecutor, Jakmides says which is a quality he says is woefully missing from Prosecutor John Ferrero.

From the get-go in his campaign Jakmides has hammered away at Ferrero's failure to fully implement a "direct indictment" countywide program over the timespan since he took office as a Stark County Dems' appointee (who resigned as chairman of the party just prior to the appointment) to replace Bob Horowitz in 2003 when Horowitz took office as Stark County Probate Court judge.

It is not a good idea for voters to elect a former political party head to a key law enforcement position.

Jakmides tells the SCPR that "direct indictments" fell off dramatically after Ferrero took over as prosecutor in 2003.

By comparison to Summit County which has fully implemented "direct indictment," the task for Stark County is much simpler.  In Summit, the prosecutor, Jakmides says, has to deal with individual attorneys in implementation whereas in Stark where the Stark Public Defender handles about 40% of all criminal cases which per force of volume makes the task much easier.

Jakmides says he is committed to fully implementing direct indictments in Stark County.

Other comparisons that Jakmides makes include:
  • John Ferrero accepting campaign contributions and having political connections with Stark County attorneys and others in law enforcement with whom Ferrero's office deals in the processing of criminal and  civil cases,
    • Jakmides' point:  
      • He is "self-financing" his campaign for the very reason that he wants to be free from being leaned upon by contributing attorneys or others  to cut his/her client some slack on a case the prosecutor's office has or may be in the process of investigating or making hires based on somebody having contributed to his campaign,
        • SCPR Note:  A Ferrero case the SCPR has written prolifically about is the prosecution of Marlboro Township police chief Ron Devies and his son Kyle on felony cases (which were dismissed by Judge Lee Sinclair at the end of the prosecutor's case) as perhaps being a case that had a political factor to it as to whether or not what appears to have been a communication problem getting raised to felony status,
          • Of course, the SCPR as contrasted to other Stark County media, raked Ferrero over the coals for not working to settle the matter far short of felony indictments.
          • A number of readers of this blog share The Report's suspicion that a political factor was at play in the Devies prosecution,
          • Ferrero filed an ethics complaint against me (I wrote the blog as a journalist; not a lawyer) which predictably Ohio's Disciplinary Counsel dismissed out-of-hand,
  • John Ferrero not trying cases as a trial prosecutor,
    • Jakmides says he is the most active attorney in Stark County according to data compiled by the Stark County clerk of courts office.
    • Jakmides says he will be an "in the courtroom prosecutor," something, he says, that Ferrero had never done as "the lead attorney" during his time as prosecutor in contrast to Jim Unger during his stint as a Stark's elected prosecutor,
  • John Ferrero not using prosecution of drug offenders as leverage to go after suppliers,
    Speaking of ethics:


    Is this Ferrero Facebook posting akin something that the Donald Trump campaign might put out there?

    In the American system of justice which includes the Constitution of the United States of America, every accused is entitled his day in court in which the likes of Ferrero have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt with the assistance of "effective" legal counsel.

    Ask any Stark County lawyer who one would rather have representing them if faced with criminal charges:  Jeff Jakmides or John Ferrero?

    In the SCPR's book, its a no contest.

    In competently if not superably representing criminally accused persons, Jakmides represents the finest quality of the American bar.

    For Ferrero to imply in the context of a self-serving political campaign that something is wrong with Jakmides in doing what our system of justice prizes should cause a thinking voter to consider that the person with an ethical problem might just be John Dee Ferrero, no?s

    Of all the lawyer jobs in the American justice system, being a prosecutor is one of the least challenging.

    The overwhelming bulk of our legal system infrastructure is constructed to be an awesome support system for successful prosecutors.  Any lawyer worth his/her salt ought to phenomenally successful as prosecutors.

    With all the plea bargains and dropped cases that Ferrero has countenanced, how can one reasonably say that this guy is worthy of being re-elected?

    Readers of the SCPR have come to know The Report to be the most comprehensive coverage of Stark County politics.

    Who is county prosecutor relates directly to the personal safety of all Stark Countians in terms of who is out there roaming our rural community, our villages, our suburbs and our cities.

    Jakmides "opposition research" makes a compelling case that a John Ferrero-led prosecutor's office has not been up to the task.

    And only the SCPR provides the reading public with the objective data that Jakmides' "opposition research" puts Ferrero on the defensive upon in terms of providing a case by case accounting to the Stark County voting public.

    Here is a list (links provided) to prior SCPR blogs on the Jakmides/Ferrero race.

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