SLO Grand Jury Commends DA's Office

By TPR Staff

The 2008-09 San Luis Obispo County grand jury recently released its first report of the year, commending changes made at the District Attorney’s Office after a 2002 fatal traffic accident in Grover Beach.

In 2002, Ken Freitas, the son of Frank Freitas, county tax collector, hit a 17-year-old Grover Beach girl with his SUV as she was crossing West Grand Avenue in a crosswalk. The girl later died of her injuries.

After investigating the accident, Grover police forwarded the case to the District Attorney’s Office to consider charging Freitas with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.

The case sat at the District Attorney’s Office for seven months and was then sent to the Attorney General’s Office because of a potential conflict of interest. The attorney general declined to prosecute and the case was sent back to San Luis Obispo.

Freitas was charged by the District Attorney’s Office with vehicular manslaughter for the teen’s death two days before the statute of limitations for prosecuting the case expired.

In August 2003, the newly formed 2003-04 grand jury received 704 requests to investigate the district attorney’s handling of the Freitas case.

As a result of the grand jury’s investigation, District Attorney Gerald Shea developed a case management tool called “Pending Cases Report,” which is reviewed monthly by the chief deputy and assistant district attorneys to determine the status of all pending cases.

Shea also issued new protocols and procedures for vehicular manslaughter cases and other cases involving a fatality, as well as cases that may have potential conflicts of interest.

In its report, the 2008-09 grand jury “applauds the district attorney for not only recognizing a problem and acting on it but for also continuing to implement the remedies he developed.

“The district attorney took immediate steps to enhance case-tracking systems already in place and create new procedures.”

No responses to the report are required.




http://www.timespressrecorder.com/articles/2009/02/11/news/slocounty/news11.txt