District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez and Kalki Yalamanchili sharpened their attacks on each other during two recent candidate forums, with Gonzalez calling her independent challenger a closet Republican and Yalamanchili providing examples of serious courtroom missteps under her tenure.
One forum took place Oct. 21 at the historically Black Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, while another was held in front of a largely Republican audience in a Piedmont Athens Regional auditorium Oct. 22. At both, the candidates defined the race as one between someone who is experienced and competent in the legal realm and someone who openly shares Athens’ political values.
While Gonzalez often spoke of moving forward with the progressive reforms she started over the past nearly four years, Yalamanchili said “we are going backwards” in areas like prosecuting violent crimes and addressing mental health and substance abuse issues in the community. He said the incumbent is “not delivering for victims of serious violent felonies. We’ve had a complete failure to do that.”
Gonzalez, meanwhile, said the top issue in the race “is the racism and discrimination within the system.” She defended her record, casting herself as the victim of hostile or indifferent judges, law enforcement officers, defense attorneys, public defenders, county commissioners and others, and saying that the COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of funding have slowed her progress toward reform.
Political Leanings: Gonzalez, a former Democratic state representative, described herself as a proud Democrat who votes blue up and down the ballot. She criticized Yalamanchili for accepting money and support from Republicans. “You take the money, you affiliate yourself with the people you took the money from,” she said. “And they will always, always expect something in return.”
She said that Yalamanchil will take the office back to the philosophy of longtime former DAs Ken Mauldin and Harry Gordon that voters rejected in 2020. “Going back to tough on crime, punishment is the only way to hold people accountable—that is the vision he is giving you,” she said.
Yalamanchili declined to reveal who he is voting for, telling Flagpole that he believes the office should be nonpartisan, and he does not want to alienate half the residents of the Western Circuit either way (the circuit includes both Clarke and Oconee counties). But he took issue with Gonzalez’s assertions that the options are reform or a tough-on-crime approach. He said he would utilize pretrial diversion and accountability courts to get nonviolent defendants the help they need while also securing convictions for serious violent felonies like murder and sexual assault.
“Just because my opponent can’t do it doesn’t mean it’s not possible,” he said, adding that only about half the available slots in special court programs for mental illness, substance abuse and military veterans are filled. Gonzalez blamed the open slots on a screening committee and uncooperative defense attorneys and public defenders.
When asked about specific political issues like abortion and the death penalty, Gonzalez reiterated that she would not prosecute anyone under Georgia’s strict six-week abortion ban, and said her decision not to seek the death penalty against Jose Antonio Ibarra, Laken Riley’s alleged killer, came in consultation with Riley’s family. Yalamanchili would not take a blanket stance on either issue because he said it would invite the state attorney general’s office to come in and take over those cases. He also noted that no one has been charged with crime under the abortion law.
Gonzalez was questioned about her decision to bring in an outside prosecutor to handle the Ibarra case. “I’m Latina,” she said. “I did not want that to become an issue. I did not want that to become a distraction.”
Yalamanchili, however, said the DA’s office should prosecute such high-profile cases itself so that the voters can hold the DA accountable. He questioned whether Gonzalez is capable of handling the case, and why she did not bring in outside prosecutors for other murders. “That is not justice for all,” he said.
Trial Errors: Yalamanchili laid out several instances where prosecutors under Gonzalez made serious mistakes that led to charges being dismissed and/or reprimands from judges—facts that Gonzalez did not dispute, but sought to explain anyway.
In a case involving a man accused of molesting his daughter, an assistant district attorney dismissed the charges right before trial without notifying the victim’s family. A judge ordered the charges reinstated, and the DA from a neighboring district won a conviction after the jury deliberated for less than an hour. In another, a hit-and-run victim’s wife was not kept informed of a decision to downgrade charges against the driver from vehicular homicide to a misdemeanor; Gonzalez’s office argued that Marsey’s Law did not apply because she was his common-law wife. A third case he discussed involved the killing of a homeless individual where Gonzalez’s office cut plea deals for three and five years for the two defendants. He spoke about a prosecutor who withheld evidence, leading to a 14-year sentence for the defendant. And in one case, he said a defendant waited in jail for 13 months before the DA’s office scheduled a hearing. In addition, local judges have held assistant district attorneys in contempt for manufacturing evidence, withholding evidence from the defense and coming to court unprepared, Yalamanchili said.
“Things are not getting better. They are getting worse,” he said. “We need to make a change so we can have a DA’s office we all deserve.”
Gonzalez said there is a lot of confusion about Marsey’s Law among lawyers and judges, and no one seems to be tracking violations except “an individual who is single-mindedly bringing this into hearings,” referring to Kevin Epps, an Oconee County lawyer and frequent critic. The 13-month wait for a hearing was because a judge did not put the trial on a calendar, she said, and the ADA who withheld evidence lied during his job interview. In other instances, she chalked up mistakes to learning experiences. She said that some cases were lost because “rookie cops” do not know how to testify, and that the Athens-Clarke County Police Department refused to let her train them on the rules of evidence.
“I will always hold my employees to the highest ethical standards,” she said.
Yalamanchili said he would foster better relationships with law enforcement, because police and prosecutors should work closely together while a case is being investigated, while also holding law enforcement agencies accountable for wrongdoing.
Staffing Levels: Yalamanchili criticized Gonzalez’s “record of failure.” He attributed her low conviction rate to a combination of inexperience—Gonzalez had never handled a criminal case prior to taking office—and staff turnover. He said her office has lost more than 40 attorneys, and while it’s now almost fully staffed, just 11 of 16 positions are held by people licensed to practice in Georgia.
“This is nothing new when leadership changes, that there is turnover in there,” Gonzalez said. The same thing happened to Mauldin in 2004, she said. In addition, she said, she faced the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, a backlog of cases when she took office, and uncompetitive pay for ADAs.
Even though the Western Circuit has never paid as much as metro Atlanta circuits, the Athens circuit has also never had such problems with turnover, according to Yalamanchili. “It’s very clear it’s a leadership issue,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez said Yalamanchili lacks experience with administrative tasks like budgeting. “There’s a difference between trial skills, which my opponent is talking about, and managing and running an office,” she said.
Yalamanchili worked as a prosecutor under Mauldin before leaving to start a private defense practice. “What I learned during that time period was how to prepare for a case and try it before a jury,” he said.
He said he would use his connections in the legal community and with UGA to keep a pipeline of talented prosecutors flowing.
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