Template that Santa Clara County District Attorney's use to direct file a juvenile

Good Morning Mr. Tull,

The Office reached out to you on 12/16/2016 to notify you that we are currently reviewing your request. We also asked your phone number to help facilitate your request. Should you have further questions, please feel free to contact Public Communications Officer Sean Webby at 408-792-2997.

Thank you,

Cynthia Sumida
Public Information Officer
Santa Clara County Office of the District Attorney
70 West Hedding - West Wing
San Jose, CA 95110

Mr. Tull,

The District Attorney’s Office has attempted to contact you several times to obtain your telephone number in order to ask for clarification on your requests and comply with the County’s obligations under the California Public Records Act. We are now seeking clarification in writing, as follows:

1. All of the emails sent in the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office regarding cases that were direct filed, during 2015.

To enable the Office to search for records responsive to Request #1 and determine whether those records are subject to any disclosure exemptions, please clarify whether you are seeking emails relating to any specific subject pertaining to cases that were direct filed.

2. All emails sent in the Santa Clara County Office of the District Attorney that include mentions of Proposition 57 (abbreviated as Prop. 57).

For Request #2, please clarify whether you are seeking emails relating to any specific subject pertaining to Prop 57. Please also clarify the time frame for this request.

3. The template legislation that the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office uses to draft a direct file motion.

We do not understand what is being sought by Request #3. Please clarify what you are seeking so that we may search for potentially responsive records and determine whether any disclosure exemptions may apply.

Cynthia Sumida, Public Information Officer
Office of the District Attorney of Santa Clara County
70 West Hedding|West Wing
San Jose, CA 95110

Dear Mr. Tull,

Thank you for clarifying your California Public Records Act (CPRA) request to the County’s Office of the District Attorney. I write to provide the County’s response.

Item 1: emails relating to district attorneys’ decisions of whether or not to direct file cases in 2015. So, any emails in which the district attorneys discussed whether or not to direct file a case.

Emails between and among the attorneys in the Office of the District Attorney regarding their decisions whether to direct-file cases are exempt from disclosure under the CPRA’s investigative exemption. (Gov. Code § 6254(f).) In addition, Gov. Code § 6254(k) exempts from disclosure under the CPRA all “[r]ecords, the disclosure of which is exempted or prohibited pursuant to federal or state law.” The records you are seeking reflect prosecutors’ legal impressions, conclusions, opinions, and analysis, and thus they are absolutely protected from disclosure under the attorney work product privilege contained in Civil Procedure Code § 2018.030(a). Finally, to the extent you are seeking emails between prosecutors and defense attorneys, Evidence Code § 1040(a) contains a privilege for “‘official information’ . . . acquired in confidence by a public employee in the course of his or her duty and not open, or officially disclosed, to the public prior to the time the claim of privilege is made.” This privilege covers any settlement negotiations between prosecutors and defense counsel.

Item 2: emails specifically discussing the juvenile provision of Proposition 57. In other words, emails that mention the district attorney’s direct filing power in relation to Proposition 57.

The County may have records responsive to this request. We are submitting an inquiry to our information services personnel to request emails responsive to your request, after which the emails will be reviewed and produced to the extent they are not exempted or privileged.

Item 3: any standard templates or documents that are used to direct file cases.

A redacted template document is attached to this email.

Kavita Narayan, Deputy County Counsel
Office of the County Counsel, County of Santa Clara
70 W. Hedding Street, East Wing, 9th Floor
San Jose, CA 95110
Phone: (408) 299-5927 / Fax: (408) 292-7240
Kavita.Narayan@cco.sccgov.org

NOTICE: This e-mail message and/or its attachments are confidential and may be protected by the attorney-client and/or work product privileges. If you are not the intended recipient of this email or received this email inadvertently, please contact the sender and delete all copies.

Dear Mr. Tull,

I inadvertently left off an attachment responsive to Item 3 of your request. A full set of attachments is attached here.

Kavita Narayan, Deputy County Counsel
Office of the County Counsel, County of Santa Clara
70 W. Hedding Street, East Wing, 9th Floor
San Jose, CA 95110
Phone: (408) 299-5927 / Fax: (408) 292-7240
Kavita.Narayan@cco.sccgov.org

NOTICE: This e-mail message and/or its attachments are confidential and may be protected by the attorney-client and/or work product privileges. If you are not the intended recipient of this email or received this email inadvertently, please contact the sender and delete all copies.