Because of that, the California Attorney General's Office is handling a number of cases locally and around the state.
Agency officials told Lake County News that the Attorney General's Office regularly handles cases that district attorneys cannot prosecute due to conflicts of interest.
Officials said the need for the Attorney General's Office to prosecute cases commonly arises when new district attorneys are elected. Conflicts usually come about when former clients of a new district attorney are being criminally prosecuted.
Because of that, the Attorney General's Office has experienced trial prosecutors in each of the agency's regional offices who handle these types of cases.
“Based on last November's elections, our San Francisco office is currently prosecuting a number of cases in Mendocino and Del Norte counties, as well as several in Lake County, where the newly elected district attorney has a conflict of interest based on his former representation of the criminal defendant,” said Senior Assistant Attorney General Gerald Engler, the head of the section that provides coverage to the North Coast counties.
In Lake County, as a result of Don Anderson's election to the district attorney's post, the Attorney General's Office said it's handling several cases.
The prosecutions in question include a large marijuana case from 2007 involving charges of cultivation, possession for sale and conspiracy against seven codefendants, one of them Allen Timms, who Anderson said he had represented in the case. Court records show that Anderson was relieved as Timms' attorney last Dec. 20.
Two other cases that present conflicts for Anderson's office because of past representation involve 44-year-old Lucerne resident Todd Drawdy.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff said Drawdy is being prosecuted for misdemeanor annoying or molesting a child, with the second case involving a probation violation.
Perhaps the most notable of the conflict cases, and the most long-running, is that of Derik Navarro, a former deputy sheriff facing prosecution for the alleged statutory rape of his babysitter, the Attorney General's Office said.
Navarro was arrested in April 2007 on a number of felony charges for allegedly having been involved sexually with a 14-year-old girl. The original case included a misdemeanor charge for his alleged involvement with another juvenile female, as Lake County News has reported.
Navarro was employed with the sheriff's office from 2002 until his firing in 2007, which occurred following an internal affairs investigation and ahead of his arrest, according to the original arrest report on the case.
The case has seen numerous delays. Last year it was set for trial but rescheduled, according to court records.
Deputy District Attorney John DeChaine, the prosecutor since the case's inception, said he couldn't comment on the case and its delays. He deferred all comment to Anderson.
Regarding his conflict, Anderson said he had been appointed by the Police Officers Research Association of California (PORAC) to represent Navarro during an administrative hearing regarding his employment. Anderson said Navarro's original attorney left the case, necessitating another attorney's appointment.
That administrative case, too, is still pending, he said.
Another case that Hinchcliff said has been forwarded to the Attorney General's Office is that of Anderson's daughter, 37-year-old Jennifer Anderson of Clearlake Oaks, arrested last month for felony spousal battery.
Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said Jennifer Anderson was arrested after allegedly assaulting her live-in boyfriend of four years, with the man reportedly suffering a laceration to his head.
Anderson said of the case that, as far as he knew, “It hasn't been charged yet.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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