Bar Judge Endorses Four-Year Suspension for Prosecutor’s ‘Abused’ Power

A California State Bar judge has recommended a suspension for an assistant district attorney in Santa Clara County for four years based on findings he withheld evidence and committed other abuses of power.

The prosecutor, Ben Field, is planning to appeal the recommendation to a three-judge panel appointed by the California Supreme Court, the Daily Journal reports (sub. req.). Field was once a “rising star” in the prosecutor’s office, the story says, and had considered running for district attorney in 2006.

The state bar judge, Pat McElroy, found that Field "abused his prosecutorial power, concealed relevant and material evidence and violated the constitutional rights of defendants,” according to the Daily Journal story. The decision said he withheld exculpatory evidence, misled a judge and disobeyed court orders.

The San Jose Mercury News describes McElroy's opinion as "scathing" and said the judge's four-year suspension recommendation was more severe than the three-year suspension sought by bar prosecutors.

In one rape case, the judge said, Field did not disclose the location of a witness who said the victim was lying. The DA’s office dropped sexual assault charges against the alleged rapists six years after they were originally convicted, according to the story.

The state bar has filed seven ethics cases against prosecutors in the last three years. Donald Steedman, the supervising trial counsel in Field’s case, denied the bar is targeting prosecutors, but said they must be “held to very high standards,” the story says.

Steedman previously said the large number of cases against California prosecutors is the result of "luck, karma."

Updated at 1 p.m. to add reference to Mercury News story and to clarify that the judge had recommended, rather than imposed, the suspension.