Posted: October 31, 2003 at 6:51 p.m. SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Question: who will become the next District Attorney of San Francisco? Next to the mayor's race, it'll be the most closely watched race in San Francisco next Tuesday. It's currently an office that's held by the colorful, combative and controversial Terence Hallinan.
Terence Hallinan, once known as Kayo when he fought in the ring as a young boxer, is today still as pugnacious as ever as he runs for re-election. "I look forward to cleaning up this corrupt mess that Willie Brown's adminstration is leaving behind it," he says.
The fiery incumbent comes from a family of criminal defense lawyers and liberal political activists. He calls himself a "progressive" district attorney - the public safety is more important to him than a conviction rate. That non-traditional approach toward solving crime may explain why Hallinan has the lowest felony conviction rate in the state. He would rather send those charged with non-violent crimes to diversion programs, instead of jail.
"I have 3,000 felony drug offenders in diversion right now and the people who complete that program have a recidivism rate of 12 percent compared to people who go to prison or go to jail who have a recidivism rate of 53 percent," he says.
Hallinan's critics, including three-time opponent Bill Fazio, say Hallinan sounds more like a defense attorney trying to keep criminals out of jail than a district attorney who should be putting them in jail. In particular, drug dealers.
"He's more likely to rehabilitate or attempt to rehabilitate drug dealers who aren't rehabiltatable, rather than he is to dealing with the root causes and rehabilitating drug abusers. I'm interested in rehabilitating those people who've been victimized by the drug dealers," says Fazio.
Three years ago, KRON 4 News aired a special report which revealed a disturbing pattern in the DA's office. Narcotics officers told us that prosecutors were letting drug dealers off with a slap on the wrist, finding creative ways to reduce charges, and sending dealers to diversion programs meant for addicts rather than prison.
Following our report, Hallinan reorganized his narcotics unit which he says has been vigorously prosecuting serious drug felons. But captain Tim Hettrich, who heads the police department's narcotics detail, claims nothing has changed since our report aired three years ago.
"Things are exactely the same," Hettrich says. "In the DA's office there are tremendous prosecutors; people who do a good job. People who want to do a good job. I think the overall tone that's been set in the DA's office is one where they're not allowed to do the job they want to do."
Hettrich says drug dealers are still not being prosecuted. "It goes beyond being frustrated," he says, "with these cases being dismissed, with these cases being dropped down and probation being issued on top of probation and these individuals causing problems for the city not being sent to the state penitentary."
One thing that definately has not improved is the DA's relations with the police department brass. Even Hallinan will agree with that.
"I think the police department is weary of me. I think that's good," Hallinan says. "I mean, I've got the chief's son under indictment... "
He is, of course, referring to police chief Alex Fagan's son who's charged along with two other officers with assault in an off-duty street attack now dubbed fajitagate. It is a case that led to grand jury indictments of the former police chief and many of his top command staff.
The indictments didn't stick and Hallinan was widely criticized for the way he handled the high profile case, which further eroded his relations with police.
"It is fact that at this point in San Francisco, the San Francisco DA's office and the SFPD are at best hostile to one another," veteran prosecutor Kamala Harris says. Harris is also running against Hallinan in this election
"What we need is a DA who knows not to be in bed with the police department, but knows how to work with the police department when it comes to solving crime, when it comes to gathering evidence," Harris says.
The other highly publicized event during his tenure was the fatal dog mauling case. Hallinan says that was his proudest moment as DA, when the jury returned a murder verdict against the dog's owner, Marjorie Knoller.
"That made me feel I really did it, I'm a good DA. I got a tough case. Everybody said, 'you're not going to win this case,'" Hallinan says. "And San Francisco's rap has always been we don't win the tough cases."
But tough, he still is. At the age of 66, Terence Hallinan is a skilled politician who learned his survival skills as Kayo Hallinan, that young boxer.
"Yeah. I definitely learned that you have to keep punching," he says.
Hallinan is in the ring fighting for his third term as district attorney. Both his opponents, Kamala Harris and Bill Fazio are veteran prosecutors.
(Copyright 2003, KRON 4. All rights reserved.)
