Chief prosecutor: No leniency given for testimony in Korey Kauffman case

Some prosecution witnesses in the Korey Kauffman murder case have been arrested on unrelated charges. The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office has chosen not to file charges in some of those cases, while other cases have resulted in plea deals.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Dave Harris testified Monday that those prosecution decisions were not enticements for witnesses to testify in a preliminary hearing for Modesto defense attorney Frank Carson and five others charged in Kauffman’s death.

The defense has questioned prosecutors and other defense attorneys about criminal cases involving these prosecution witnesses. They want to know whether the witnesses were either offered or given leniency in exchange for their testimony against Carson and his co-defendants.

Harris said he’s sure that although cases for some of the prosecution witnesses ended with dismissals, reduced charges or minimal sentences, the outcomes were not the result of any inducement for their testimony.

Deputy Public Defender Benjamin Rosenstein has represented witnesses Michael Cooley and Ronald Cooper Jr. The defense attorney has testified that both his clients were promised leniency in their unrelated criminal cases.

Harris said a contract from prosecutors has to be agreed to before a witness can receive any benefits in exchange for testimony. “People agree to do things without getting a benefit all the time,” he testified.

Initially, Harris was the lead prosecutor on the Kauffman case, which started as a missing-person investigation. Authorities say Kauffman was last seen alive March 30, 2012. Harris began advising investigators on the case a few weeks after Kauffman disappeared. His remains were found in August 2013 in Mariposa County.

Eventually a task force of investigators from various local police agencies was assigned to work the Kauffman case. Authorities say it wasn’t clear initially where the alleged crime took place, so the multijurisdictional task force was needed.

Harris was the prosecutor in the case against Robert Lee Woody, who was the first suspect in the Kauffman murder publicly identified and arrested. Woody was in custody for more than a year before he decided to cooperate with prosecutors. He is being prosecuted separately.

By the time Carson and the other co-defendants were arrested in mid-August, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marlisa Ferreira had replaced him on the Kauffman case.

In May, Harris and prosecution investigator Steve Jacobson faced a contempt-of-court charge. Harris was accused of failing to promptly notify the court that Jacobson had questioned an alternate juror. Jacobson was accused of questioning the alternate juror while the jury was deliberating in Aleo Pontillo’s trial.

The jury eventually acquitted Pontillo. His attorney, Carson, learned of Jacobson’s actions and informed the court, which led to the contempt-of-court case. While Carson was in custody in late September, Superior Court Judge Linda McFadden dropped the contempt charges after Harris and Jacobson apologized in court.

The defense on Monday asked Harris if he and Carson didn’t really like each other. The prosecutor answered, “I don’t really care, one way or the other.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2015 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Chief prosecutor: No leniency given for testimony in Korey Kauffman case."