Groups ask Legislature to stop DAs from prosecuting environmental crimes

Environmental groups are asking state legislators to require the California District Attorneys Association to repay $2.9 million in funding intended to help pursue environmental crimes that was allegedly siphoned off for other purposes.

Tuesday's letter also seeks an amendment of the Penal Code so the group of county prosecutors would no longer be responsible for statewide enforcement of environmental laws and asks that California's EPA assign the work to other organizations.

Vern Pierson, president of the association's board of directors, wrote in a statement Thursday the district attorneys are working to clean up their act after discovering the problem in an audit.

"In early summer of 2020, the CDAA board learned of accounting irregularities within certain environmental funds," Pierson wrote.

"The board immediately instituted corrective actions including a stop of the practices, a complete investigation, disclosure to environmental prosecutors of known information, and a commitment to repay any misdirected funds," he added.

Those actions included the hiring of a new executive director, former Ventura County District Attorney Gregory D. Totten, Pierson wrote.

Under state legislation approved in 2002, the district attorneys' group partnered with the California Environmental Protection Agency to assist rural counties in prosecuting environmental crimes.

But the audit concluded that the association siphoned off money intended for the "Environmental Circuit Prosecutor Project," leaving it without funds.

"We were shocked and outraged the CDAA was diverting funding from the circuit prosecutor program," said Bill Magavern, policy director of the Coalition for Clean Air, one of the signatories.

The letter demands return of redirected funds, additional oversight, an amendment of the Penal Code steering money away from the prosecutors' group, and a termination of any grants to the organization for environmental enforcement efforts.

Pierson, in response, wrote that his organization is "committed to full transparency and accountability."

-- Craig Anderson