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Who will become Sacramento County’s next DA? Election puts career prosecutor against reformer

In the race to succeed Anne Marie Schubert as Sacramento County district attorney, candidates Thien Ho and Alana Mathews are both banking on their experience, but of different types.

Ho, a 20-year prosecutor who oversaw the largest criminal case in California history — the Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist case against Joseph James DeAngelo — says his courtroom experience is “unrivaled, unmatched.’

“The people of Sacramento really need, in my opinion, a steady hand of a veteran prosecutor at the helm who’s going to make sure that people are safe, that their children are safe, that their families are safe, that their businesses are safe, that all our communities are safe,” Ho said.

Mathews, 47, who spent eight years as a deputy district attorney in Sacramento, says courtroom experience is important, but counters that she has a broad background as a professor at McGeorge School of Law, a gubernatorial appointee to the California Energy Commission and chief consultant for climate change in the state Legislature.

“It is broad and diverse experience, which includes prosecution in the courtroom, but it also includes being an executive leader, driving organizational change, working in the Legislature,” Mathews said.

Both are Democrats who say crime and homelessness are key issues, both have taught as adjunct professors at McGeorge and both clawed their way up from modest backgrounds to successful careers.

Both also would be the first D.A. of color in Sacramento: Mathews is Black, while Ho is Vietnamese. And whoever wins will be the first Democrat elected to the post since Steve White in the 1990s.

But they differ on a number of issues.

Ho, 48, supports the death penalty, while Mathews opposes it.

Mathews says she would have filed charges against Sacramento police in a 2016 shooting in which an officer reportedly escalated a confrontation with a distressed, knife-wielding Black man, Joseph Mann. Mathews said “it’s been disappointing” that Schubert’s office has not filed charges against police in dozens of officer-involved shooting cases.

Ho says he is not convinced there was enough evidence to bring to a jury in the Mann shooting, but insists that he would not hesitate to file charges against an officer if they engaged in unlawful behavior.

“To me, it doesn’t matter whether somebody wears blue jeans or blue uniform, whether they’re on probation or they’re a police officer, if you violate the law, you’re going to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Ho said. “Bottom line, you go with the facts.”

Ho has won widespread support and campaign contributions from law enforcement, while Mathews says she won’t accept police union money, relying on “a completely grassroots” campaign of “people impacted by crime” who are giving contributions of $10 or $25 or $100. Ho says his campaign has raised about $800,000, while Mathews says she has raised about half that amount.

And Ho is seen as a tough-on-crime prosecutor under Schubert while Mathews says the D.A.’s office needs change and a focus on accountability for crime, as well as prevention and intervention efforts before crimes are committed.

Ho is an immigrant who came to the United States as a 4-year-old when his family escaped Vietnam in 1976 and first settled in Stockton, an experience that he says has contributed to his desire to serve the public.

“I came to this country in 1976 not knowing the word of English, learning how to speak English from watching Bugs Bunny cartoons and going to (English as a second language) class,” Ho said. “And 22 years later I graduated from law school.

“So we get to a certain point, whether we’re immigrants or children of immigrants ... where you need to give back, you need to serve.”

Prosecuting Golden State Killer

He says he has handled nearly 100 trials in his time as a prosecutor, some among the highest-profile in recent years, including the Lilly Manning case involving a victim who came to be known as the “girl with 100 Scars” after she was kept in a locked closet for 15 years and survived horrific beatings.

His biggest case was sending former Auburn police officer DeAngelo to prison in 2020 for life after he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of murder. DeAngelo committed a series of murders and rapes from 1975 through 1986 that began in Visalia and extended the length of California, including a series of sexual assaults in Sacramento where the attacker was known as the “East Area Rapist.”

The case started out as a death penalty prosecution, but eventually led to a plea agreement that allowed DeAngelo to plead guilty and spend the rest of his life in prison, something Ho says was necessary because so many victims, witnesses and detectives could have died before the decades-old case came to trial.

“If anybody deserved the death penalty it was him, for what he did,” Ho said. “And the decision was made to seek the death penalty originally on that case, and then there was a decision not to.

“And, initially, I disagreed with it because if anybody deserved it was him.”

But Ho said that as one of the original detectives on the case died and DeAngelo’s first Sacramento victim became ill with cancer, he saw the need for DeAngelo’s victims to be able to see him plead guilty and accept responsibility for his crimes.

“And I will stand by it every single day of the year here,” he added.

Ho says that even with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order banning imposition of the death penalty, he would file such cases “in very rare circumstances.”

“The way I look at the death penalty is for a rare group of individuals, for some of the most heinous crimes that we’re talking about, multiple murders, rape of a child,” Ho said.

Guilty verdict in complex case

Mathews says she would not file death penalty cases, noting that the governor’s moratorium prevents executions unless it is overturned by a future governor and that the framework for applying it “is so arbitrary.”

“If anybody was deserving of the death penalty I think it was the Golden State Killer, but they didn’t file,” she said. “And so this goes to the value of safety, fairness, and justice.

“We’ve got to get to the point where we’re being fair, so I would not be seeking that, but I would for our most serious and heinous crimes absolutely seek life without the possibility of parole.”

Mathews notes that one of the most complex cases she prosecuted was an attempted murder case that had tried by a previous prosecutor in which the jury hung without agreeing to a verdict.

She took it to trial and won a guilty verdict and two life sentences of life without possibility of parole.

That case became the subject of sharp comments between the two candidates at a May 1 Facebook debate before the Sacramento 4 The People Coalition, where Ho essentially accused Mathews of not understanding the law.

The dispute began about 23 minutes into the debate when Mathews described the conviction and and said she won two life without parole sentences because the defendant had a prior strike.

Ho immediately challenged her, saying her description of events was “simply impossible.”

“You can only get life without the possibility of parole — LWOP — if you have a special circumstance allegation charged, such as murder with a rape, such as multiple murders,” Ho said. “You can’t get that with just two strikes....

“That is simply an impossibility under the law, you cannot receive that, and this is why the position of district attorney is important and why experience is important.... I know when you can apply LWOP and when you can’t.”

Mathews countered that Ho was making a “misstatement of facts,” that the case involved “an attempt murder with a special circumstance of premeditation.”

Ho responded that alleging a special circumstance on an attempted murder charge is “an impossibility under the law.”

“Having tried homicide cases and special circumstances, you cannot have a special circumstance allegation to an attempted murder,” he said. “It only applies to a murder. And having tried those cases, charged those cases, litigated those cases that’s important to know.

“So, when it comes to the qualifications of being the district attorney and having the experience, I just wanted to point that out.”

Mathews later told The Bee that she “simply mis-remembered” the details of a case from 15 years ago.

Ho later told The Bee he did not want to elaborate, saying, “I think what I said in the debate speaks for itself.”

Sacramento Democrats behind Mathews

Mathews contends her experience beyond the courtroom makes her a better candidate for D.A., that growing up in a high-crime area of Gary, Indiana, and being a victim of domestic violence in Sacramento from a previous dating partner she understands the need for collaborative leadership with the community.

Mathews lists endorsements from various progressive groups and Democratic leaders, including Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Democratic Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, and notes that when the D.A.’s race was first heating up Schubert declined to endorse Ho, instead backing Paris Coleman before he dropped out and she then endorsed Ho.

“I believe she had been talking about (Coleman’s) ties to the community, because that’s where the D.A.’s office has been lacking,” Mathews said. “That’s been the blind spot, and even she recognized that.

“So, I mean, she had to settle on my opponent, but I don’t think the voters of Sacramento County have to.”

Ho counters that he has the backing of Schubert and other area D.A.’s, as well as police unions, retired judges, defense attorneys and groups representing both prosecutors and public defenders, and that when it came time for Schubert to choose who would prosecute the biggest case in office history she chose him.

“What that means is I work well with a lot of people and I can collaborate with a lot of people, all the partners in the criminal justice system,” he said. “And why is that the case? Because I have the credibility.

“You have to have the credibility for people to take you seriously.”