Retired Judge Diana Becton. Courtesy of CCLawyer.cccba.org.
Three County Supervisors prefered retired Judge Diana Becton as Interim Contra Costa District Attorney over Supervising Deputy DA Paul Graves. Supervisors Gioia, Burgis and Glover favored Becton, while Andersen and Mitchoff favored Graves.
However, they then voted unanimously Tuesday afternoon to appoint Becton who starts in her new job next Monday. She will be the first woman and as an African-American, Judge Becton will be the first person of color to hold the position.
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So basically after all the months saying they wanted to restore integrity to the office, three members of the Board of Supervisors chose someone to fill this role who has zero prosecutorial experience and was found to have plagiarized her application. Thankfully Karen Mitchoff and Candace Anderson have some integrity and understanding of what the interim DA role is supposed to be.
Well said.
I find it concerning that Supervisor John Gioia, asked to comment on Becton or Kensok, declined and said he was focused solely on finding a DA with “strong integrity” who will ” re-establish public trust in the office, protect public safety, and be committed to a fair and equitable justice system.” A swing and a miss on the first. We will need to wait and see on the other three.
Thank you Supervisors Mitchoff and Anderson for standing on the side of integrity. Perhaps they could put a word in the ear of the other supervisors.