San Mateo County's taxpayers cannot afford to have a Chief Deputy District Attorney, like Wagstaffe, whose judgment is so bad and actions are so reckless that an admitted murderer is given the opportunity to be set free because Wagstaffe engaged in "purposeful discrimination" against African American jurors during the murder trial. Now taxpayers are left on the hook paying hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to clean up the mess resulting from the Chief Deputy District Attorney's horribly bad judgment and reckless tendencies. For this reason, San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Wagstaffe needs to resign now.

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In the case that is the subject of the successful appeal by Mr. Ali, the admitted murderer, Wagstaffe thumbed his nose at the Civil Rights Movement; raised the menacing spectre of Jim Crow; and with his "purposeful discrimination" against 2 African-American jurors, sent the clear message that the fight against segregation and racism in San Mateo County is far from over. For this reason, San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Wagstaffe needs to resign now.

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As the old saying goes, "Where there is smoke, there is fire".

San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Wagstaffe and his boss, the retiring San Mateo County District Attorney Jim Fox, are already giving wealthy, politically connected San Bruno Mayor Larry Franzella a free pass on multiple, perjured Statements of Economic Interest (SEIs), signed in San Mateo County and filed with the States of California, by refusing to prosecute Mr. Franzella. This matter was reported in the Beacon on December 4, 2008, June 17, 2009, June 20, 2009.

Now, San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Wagstaffe just handed the admitted killer of former Oakland Raiders Hall of Fame wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff's daughter Tracey a get out of jail free card. As reported in the July 8, 2009 edition of The Daily News, "In a unanimous decision, [U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals] Judge Marsha Berzon wrote that Wagstaffe provided "implausible” reasons for dismissing the [African American] jurors, and that there was “overwhelming evidence” he “acted with discriminatory intent. As a result, the court found that Ali should get a new trial".

In this case, Ali v. Hickman, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling with directions to issue a conditional writ of habeas corpus requiring that admitted killer Mohammed Haroon Ali be released from custody. The Court found that San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Wagstaffe acted with "discriminatory intent" when he struck the only two African-American jurors from the jury pool. The Court also observed that both the California Court of Appeal and the District Court clearly erred when they found that Ali failed to establish purposeful discrimination.

Now, because of Mr. Wagstaffe's outrageous and just plain stupid race based discriminatory conduct in this case, the State of California will have to spend hundreds of thousands or millions of taxpayer dollars retrying Mr. Ali. If the State chooses not to retry Mr. Ali, he will be set free.

Based on what happened here, you could say that San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Wagstaffe is the best friend that this admitted killer ever had.

San Mateo County's taxpayers cannot afford to have a Chief Deputy District Attorney, like Wagstaffe, whose judgment is so bad and actions are so reckless that an admitted murderer is given the opportunity to be set free because Wagstaffe engaged in "purposeful discrimination" against African American jurors during the murder trial. Now taxpayers are left on the hook paying hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to clean up the mess resulting from the Chief Deputy District Attorney's horribly bad judgment and reckless tendencies. For this reason, San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Wagstaffe needs to resign now.

When I looked at my calendar, I noticed that it was 2009. After reading the Ali v. Hickman decision, I couldn't believe that we had a Chief Deputy District Attorney, in San Mateo County, who appears to act like he is living in some 1950s or 1960's Alabama hell hole where Jim Crow ruled the roost and segregation restricted the civil rights of African Americans.

San Mateo County Chief District Attorney Wagstaffe's purposeful and intentional discriminatory conduct in this case, that resulted in the only 2 African American jurors not being allowed to serve on the jury, brings back images of Alabama Governor George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door to stop the integration of African American children into white only schools in Alabama.

From a legal, moral, and just plain old common sense standpoint; thought should be given to having an outside investigative law enforcement agency conduct an in-depth investigation into the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office. An investigation to determine how many members of the African American, Mexican-Latino American, and other minority communities in San Mateo County may have been wrongly and/or maliciously prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Wagstaffe as a byproduct of same type of purposeful and intentional discriminatory conduct he openly exhibited in this case?

Does San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Wagstaffe get paid by San Mateo County's taxpayers to act with discriminatory intent and purposeful discrimination against the County's African American residents? Is this the type of person we want prosecuting crimes in San Mateo County? I think the answers to these questions are "no" and "no".

In my opinion, Wagstaffe is a legal train wreck inflicting himself at great expense on the people of San Mateo County. Wagstaffe really needs to resign now.

For your consideration: Does the California Bar Association have any rules about it's Members engaging in openly racist activity? I'm pretty sure that Members of the California Bar Association are not supposed to engage in racist activity in carrying out their duties as an attorney. Can San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Wagstaffe be disbarred for acting with discriminatory intent when he improperly excluded two African American jurors for racially motivated reasons? Who is going to file the complaint with the California Bar Association against Wagstaffe?

San Mateo County District Attorney (DA) Jim Fox and his sidekick, Chief Deputy District Attorney (CDDA) Wagstaffe [who thinks he is going to be replacing Fox as DA when Fox retires soon (not soon enough)], are running what appears to be a dysfunctional DAs Office. A public office infected with what in my opinion is the type of cancerous political cronyism that breeds corruption in government combined with the type of viral institutionalization and practice of racism that has resulted in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversing an admitted killer's conviction because" there was “overwhelming evidence” he [Wagstaffe]“ acted with discriminatory intent.

As I said in my June 20th article about Messrs. Fox and Wagstaffe's refusal to prosecute San Bruno Mayor Franzella for the documented perjury he committed, "We can no longer let this injustice stand. It is time for everybody to rise up against this type of political cronyism, that breeds corruption in government, and act. There is no substitute for honesty and integrity in government."

It is time for both Fox and his sidekick Wagstaffe to resign so San Mateo can find a new DA and Chief Deputy DA who do not act with racially discriminatory intent and hand out free passes to admitted killers. It is also time for both Fox and Wagstaffe to resign so San Mateo can find a new DA and Chief Deputy DA who do not hand out free passes to politically powerful/wealthy, well connected politicians and other VIPs like Mr. Franzella, who can commit multiple documented counts of perjury in San Mateo County knowing that Fox and Wagstaffe will not prosecute them because Fox and his sidekick Wagstaffe appear to protect their wealthy, well connected friends.

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IS SAN MATEO COUNTY CHIEF DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY WAGSTAFFE A RACIST?

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As I see it, the role of the Beacon is to raise this question and let the Beacon's readers determine, based upon the facts, whether or not Wagstaffe is a racist. If I were to say Wagstaffe is or Wagstaffe isn't a racist, I would be unfairly front loading your decision about this matter. It is not up to me alone to determine this question and take the necessary and appropriate action if the answer is yes.

Wagstaffe holds the prosecutorial reigns of power in San Mateo County and wants to become San Mateo County's next District Attorney when the current DA Jim Fox retires in the very near future. So it is important, based upon what happened in this case, for each of us to make a determination on this matter.

In the case of Ali v. HIckman, there was “overwhelming evidence” that Wagstaffe “acted with discriminatory intent" in excluding two black jurors from the jury. As a matter of fact, Wagstaffe's discriminatory intent was so strong that it resulted in the reversal of the conviction of the admitted killer he was prosecuting. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in their decision reversing an admitted killer's conviction, stated that "there was “overwhelming evidence” he [Wagstaffe] acted with discriminatory intent when he dismissed the only two African American jurors in the jury pool for this case.

Even if we give Wagstaffe the benefit of the doubt, and assume he is not a racist; at the very least, in this case, his reckless actions were unprincipled; showed an absence of legal judgment; and were an insult to the African American community.

In this case, Wagstaffe thumbed his nose at the Civil Rights Movement; raised the menacing spectre of Jim Crow; and with his "purposeful discrimination" against 2 African-American jurors, sent the clear message that the fight against segregation and racism in San Mateo County is far from over. For this reason, San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Wagstaffe needs to resign now.