Stanislaus DA Fladager won’t run for re-election. How she plans to stay with Peterson case
Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager announced Tuesday she will not seek a fifth term next year.
“That still leaves me with over a year to serve as District Attorney and to ensure a smooth transition when the time comes for a new elected DA to take over,” Fladager said in a news release.
Fladager has worked as a prosecutor for 31 years and served as District Attorney for 15 years.
She said the priority for the remainder of her term will be reaching a resolution in the Laci Paterson murder case.
Fladager rose to prominence as part of the team that prosecuted Scott Peterson in 2004. He was convicted of killing his wife Laci and their unborn son and sentenced to death.
But the California Supreme Court last year overturned his death sentence and returned the case to Superior Court to determine if he should have a new trial based on his defense teams habeas petition alleging juror misconduct.
“Our goal is to bring the habeas petition to a successful conclusion as soon as possible,” Fladager said in the press release. “If, however, court proceedings continue beyond my last day in office in January 2023, I intend to make myself fully available to assist in ongoing litigation if the next elected District Attorney will allow me to do so. I have already discussed this with Laci’s family.”
Fladager said Tuesday evening that she could take on one of several roles in the Peterson case when her term ends, including as a deputy district attorney or as a private lawyer. “It would just depend on the circumstances,” she said in a text message.
Fladager, in her release, highlighted accomplishments during her tenure including the creation of the Stanislaus Family Justice Center to better serve victims in the community; establishment of a fire investigation unit; and upgrading technology to make the office more efficient, capable, productive and safe from cyber-attacks.
While her office has grappled with high turnover in recent years, Fladager said she is also proud of having “the most dedicated and competent prosecution team anywhere.”
She’s said a multi-year economic recession led to a 25% reduction in staffing and higher pay offered by District Attorney’s Offices in surrounding counties made it hard to recover from that.
Mounting caseloads for deputy district attorneys were made worse when the coronavirus pandemic hit, leading to major backlogs as a result of court closures and limitations on the number of cases that can be heard at a time.
Other challenges she said have been ongoing changes to the criminal justice system, “which many of us fear are going too far and too fast without allowing a meaningful assessment of their effectiveness and consequences.”
Fladager said Tuesday evening she has been giving the idea of not running “serious thought for the last several months and decided that the time was appropriate for me to announce my retirement in light of the upcoming election cycle.”
Though she said she has no plans yet for 2023, “I look forward to whatever it brings. I intend to remain very focused on doing what needs to be done in the office in the meantime. “
This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 4:30 AM.
