Appellate & Training Division
The Appellate and Training Division provides support to the District Attorney’s Office through its work on motions, appeals and writs. Appellate prosecutors also serve as the legal advisor for the District Attorney's Office. The training function of the division is responsible for the coordination and development of quality professional development training for lawyers and paralegals in the office including programs that satisfy the State Bar requirement for continuing legal education.
During 2008, hundreds of motions were filed and reviewed and the division’s
attorneys received more than 1,500 telephone calls from prosecutors and
law enforcement officers seeking advice. The year was also noteworthy
for the enhanced training opportunities provided to prosecutors in the
office as well as for the appellate support given on numerous high profile
cases.
Division Chief Catherine Stephenson retired from the District Attorney's Office and Deputy District Attorney Laura Tanney took over as division chief.
Significant cases and proceedings that were handled by the division include ongoing post-dismissal proceedings in the Cynthia Sommer matter; ongoing litigation of a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the chloroform murder for which Samson Dubria was convicted in 1993, and litigation of a pretrial petition for review in the California Supreme Court in the ongoing Robert Carson murder case.
The Appellate and Training Division is also responsible for publishing
materials that are tremendous resources for this office and prosecutors’
offices across the state. These include the Sentencing Outline authored
by Chuck Nickel, DDA, (ret) and the Autobrief authored by DDA Craig Fisher.
The District Attorney’s office continues to be a state and national model with regard to training. An annual, daylong training in February addressed topics required for continuing legal education credits. And for the first time ever, the administration, prosecutors, investigators, paralegals and staff united at Golden Hall for an All Hands Celebration of Excellence.
The Appellate and Training Division launched an ambitious training calendar in 2008. New programs included live-stream lectures on topics such as, Ethics, DNA, and Changes in the Law; computer based training programs to enhance trial skills; and presentations on crime scene reconstruction and trial support technology.
The final components of the training calendar are the integrated advocacy courses – New Deputy Training, Felony Trial Advocacy and Advanced Trial Advocacy. Assistant Training Director Jim Kelly and all the members of the Legal Training Advisory Committee devoted countless hours to the success of 75 training programs, which resulted in more than 3,700 total employees trained.
AWARDS
Awards earned by members of the division include Employee Recognition Awards for Assistant Director of Training Jim Kelly, Staff Development Specialists Chris Dame and Gabe Sapida and paralegal Monica Boyd.
