Four-year Suspension for Ex-deputy Da Upheld

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Citation: Vol. 03 No. 2010 Pg. 06
• Publication year: 2010
• Pages: 06
• Year: 2010
• topic: Civil Procedure

California Bar Journal 2010.

CBJ - March 2010 #06. Four-year suspension for ex-deputy DA upheld

The California Lawyer
March 2010

Four-year suspension for ex-deputy DA upheld

Field A former Santa Clara County deputy district attorney abused his office and violated the due process rights of several criminal defendants, a State Bar Court review panel ruled last month, and should therefore lose his law license for four years. Finding that BENJAMIN THOMAS FIELD [#168197] "disregarded prosecutorial accountability in favor of winning cases," the three-judge panel upheld the recommendation of hearing Judge Pat McElroy and also urged that Field be given five years of probation.

The state Supreme Court must rule on the recommendation before it takes effect.

Field, 45, a career prosecutor and one-time rising star in the DA's office, originally was charged with 25 counts of misconduct in four cases he prosecuted. The bar court dismissed several charges as duplicative.

"Although our system of administering justice is adversarial in nature and prosecutors must be zealous advocates in prosecuting their cases, it cannot be at the cost of justice," wrote Judge Catherine Purcell, who was joined in the decision by...