The Lake County Deputy District Attorneys Association is pleased to announce its endorsement of incumbent Jon Hopkins in his bid for a second term as district attorney.

The Lake County prosecutors support Hopkins because he is the most experienced and qualified candidate for the position. Not only does Hopkins have over 30 years' experience as a top notch prosecutor, he is the only candidate with any experience prosecuting criminals.

Lake County’s Deputy District Attorneys include many experienced prosecutors who have been with the District Attorney's Office for many years. Members of the association have worked with all three candidates and it is only after careful consideration of each candidate’s qualifications that we make this endorsement.

We believe the position of district attorney should be filled by someone who is willing to take on the tough cases, not just the easy or convenient ones. We believe that our system of justice, with the right to a jury trial, is the best system in the world and the district attorney is in a unique position to see that justice is served.

Unfortunately, anyone can be the victim of crime. And when one’s family is torn apart by crime, the family deserves to have a lead prosecutor who is concerned with truth and justice and who does not bow to statistical wins and losses.

Jon Hopkins has proven himself over and over to be a prosecutor who does not assign the toughest cases to his deputies, but takes them himself – no matter how unpopular or controversial the case.

Certainly, a district attorney should not be judged by one case to the exclusion of all others. To do so would be short-sighted and, frankly, if Jon Hopkins is not reelected, Lake County will lose one of the best skilled prosecutors in the state.

What is the main reason we support Jon Hopkins? Experience. Hopkins has the experience that the other candidates do not come close to matching. Even the most inexperienced misdemeanor prosecutor has more prosecutorial experience than either of the other two candidates.

Not only has Hopkins proven himself as a career prosecutor, he has years of experience managing and mentoring other attorneys and staff – experience neither of the other candidates possess. He has experience successfully managing a multimillion dollar budget both as district attorney and previously as the chief deputy district attorney in Lake County – experience neither of the other candidates possess. When the safety of the community is at stake, you do not want someone in this position of responsibility struggling to learn the job as they go.

Jon Hopkins has practiced criminal law for nearly 38 years. Thirty-one of those years have been as a prosecutor. He has tried over 30 homicide cases and also has significant experience prosecuting cases involving sexual assault, child molestation and major fraud.

To fully understand the breadth of experience Hopkins brings to this office, it is important to examine a few of the cases that highlight his abilities. Hopkins was loaned to Lake County in 1997 by the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office to prosecute a heinous murder that had occurred here. At the time, Hopkins was serving as chief deputy district attorney for Santa Cruz and was regarded as a highly experienced homicide prosecutor.

His task in coming to Lake County was to prosecute the three men responsible for the killing of a man who was the victim of a carjacking from a fast food restaurant in Clearlake. The three men forced the victim to drive them to a remote location where they knocked him out with beer bottles, loaded him in his truck bed, drove him to a very remote area, beat him to death with a bat, dragged him into a creek and tried to set his body on fire. They drove around in his truck until it ran out of gas and then set his truck on fire and walked home.

Hopkins skillfully brought each of the three defendants to justice in three separate jury trials, convicting each one of them. This is particularly impressive as there were no witnesses who could identify the three people who carjacked the victim and only the murderers witnessed the killing. Each defendant made a statement, but denied guilt. The cases hinged on circumstantial evidence and required expert trial skills to prevail.

Despite the difficulty inherent in cases such as these, Hopkins won all three trials and each killer was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Bringing these murderers to justice is just one of many examples where Hopkins’ experience and expert trial skills came through for the people of Lake County.

After becoming chief deputy district attorney in Lake County, Hopkins tried an elder abuse homicide case where a former police officer from Southern California was charged with killing his elderly parents at their home in Nice. The only evidence connecting the killer to the murder scene was a small amount of blood on a towel found in a bathroom.

The defendant claimed a full alibi – that he was at work in Southern California at a large aircraft company and had signed in to confidential meetings on the day the killing took place. Hopkins defeated the alibi claim by showing the jury that the defendant had the opportunity to sign in after he returned to work and had rented a car and put close to 1,100 miles on it in two days. It was, once again, through hard work, experience and dedication to the truth that Hopkins brought the killer to justice in a case that hinged on circumstantial evidence.

Experience counts when prosecuting serious and violent felonies such as murder, rape and child molestation. Throughout his time here, Hopkins has successfully prosecuted over 10 murder cases, including a case where neither the victim’s body, the murder weapon nor the chainsaw allegedly used to dismember the body were ever recovered.

A less experienced prosecutor might not have prosecuted that case. Hopkins did not shy away from his responsibility to the people of Lake County. Instead he pressed forward, investigating every lead. In the end, Hopkins methodically walked the jury through the available evidence and convicted the killer.

A community deserves a tenacious prosecutor who is willing and able to fight for truth in the courtroom despite the odds. Victims and victims’ families deserve no less and Jon Hopkins has repeatedly proven himself as the right person for the job.

But being district attorney is not only about being a proven prosecutor. The job also requires a skill set to manage a large organization. In that regard, Jon Hopkins has been involved with prosecution office management since 1986 and is the only candidate with experience managing the District Attorney’s Office. After all, he was chief deputy in the Lake County District Attorney’s Office from April of 1999 until he was elected district attorney in 2006. As chief deputy district attorney and district attorney, he has demonstrated his proficiency in dealing with personnel matters and budget issues, while procuring valuable state and federal grants which provide much needed additional funding to combat crime in our community.

Hopkins also has been instrumental in organizing and coordinating special prosecution teams within the Lake County District Attorney’s Office with attorneys, investigators and victim witness advocates. Hopkins has engineered these teams to help combat domestic violence, child sexual and physical abuse, and elder abuse. Thanks to Hopkins’ dedication to victims of crime, those special prosecution teams have supported victims, punished criminals and no doubt prevented crimes.

We are proud of the reputation that Lake County has earned among criminals – that if you are going to commit crime, do it somewhere else, not Lake County – because if you prey on the people of Lake County, this District Attorney's Office, under the leadership of Jon Hopkins, will not shy away from tough cases and we will not promise probation to criminals in felony cases, as the other candidates urge.

In closing, if you believe, like we do, that a prosecutor’s office should be run by a seasoned prosecutor and that trial and management experience count, then you will join us in reelecting Jon Hopkins for district attorney.

Susan Krones is a member of the Lake County Deputy District Attorneys Association, and is writing on the group's behalf.