For Ethan Feldman, the siren's call came as he presided over his courtroom in Arapahoe County, watching a procession of newly stamped prosecutors making tentative efforts to process an increasing logjam of cases.
Anthony Camera
DA candidates Ethan Feldman (above) and George Brauchler have both been shaped by their experiences as prosecutors and defense attorneys — and in Feldman's case, a long tenure as a county court judge.
DA candidate George Brauchler.
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See also:
- James Holmes case exploited on Facebook by district attorney candidate?
- Edward Montour: The other death-penalty decision facing the new DA
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Sucker Punch: ‘Big Bitch’ policy could bite fighting concertgoer,” May 22, 2012.
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"Welcome to Arapahell,” November 24, 2011.
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Carol Chambers under fire for giving witness a car in death-penalty case,” May 13, 2011.
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Perez acquittal: A stunning rebuke of Chambers’s death-penalty chase?,” February 2, 2011.
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The Good, the Bad and the Mad: What happens to the mentally ill in the justice system is crazy,” May 29, 2008.
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Bad Execution: Judge blasts prosecution misconduct in death-penalty case,” April 10, 2008.
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Arapahoe County DA charges death-penalty fees to the state,” February 28, 2008.
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A Thumb on the Scales: The DA weighs in on the wrong case,” February 8, 2007.
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Carol Chambers: The Punisher,” February 8, 2007.
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"It was clear that there were excellent attorneys in that office, but a lot of them had left, too," Feldman says. "Someone needed to make some changes. I was kind of curious to see who would step up. Then I thought, with the experience I've had over the years, I'm the guy."
At the end of last year, after serving almost exactly twenty years as a county court judge, Feldman stepped down from the bench to run for district attorney in the 18th Judicial District — the largest district in Colorado, representing four counties (Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln) and nearly a fifth of the state's population. He's the first judge to run for DA in the 18th since Marty Miller did so half a century ago — and if he wins, he'll be the first Democrat to hold the office since Miller.
See also:
- James Holmes case exploited on Facebook by district attorney candidate?
- Edward Montour: The other death-penalty decision facing the new DA
For George Brauchler, the lure of the DA's office began four years ago, when he launched an upstart campaign against District Attorney Carol Chambers in her bid for re-election. The incumbent won that race but is now term-limited out of office, and her anointed successor lost to Brauchler in this year's Republican primary. Now the contest is between Feldman and Brauchler, a former Jefferson County prosecutor who's also a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve.
"I have the energy, the vision, the leadership to take this office where it should be," Brauchler declares. "For the last few years, it's been an island unto itself."
That's one way of putting it. Long recognized as one of the most hard-nosed prosecution teams in the state, the DA's office went into punitive overdrive under Chambers. While many other district attorneys seemed to be shying away from the death penalty, considering it all but defunct in Colorado, she sought the death sentence for half a dozen defendants and got it twice. She filed habitual-criminal charges against hundreds of chronic but low-level offenders, pushing for multi-decade sentences for crimes that in other jurisdictions might result in a year or two in prison ("Welcome to Arapahell," November 24, 2011). She also filed grievances against defense attorneys, berated county commissioners over her salary, ordered her staff to time judges' breaks, paid bonuses for meeting a quota of convictions at trial — and was publicly censured by a judicial disciplinary board for interfering in a civil case.
It's not unusual for DAs to groom their successors from within the ranks; although she was considered the dark-horse candidate when she ran in 2004, even Chambers came out of the entrenched culture of the 18th, having worked as a prosecutor for fourteen years by that point. Brauchler's primary defeat of Leslie Hansen, Chambers's top assistant, guarantees that whoever takes over next year will be the first outsider to lead that office since the 1960s. The new broom will face the challenge of dealing with the controversial legacy of the Chambers years — and an office that now finds itself in a national spotlight over the pending high-stakes trial of James Eagan Holmes, the suspect in the Aurora theater shootings that left twelve dead and injured dozens of others.
Despite all that baggage, the Brauchler-Feldman race has been, for the most part, civil to the point of blandness. At a seemingly endless series of meet-and-greets and debates, both men have pushed their ample qualifications, including experience handling high-profile criminal cases as prosecutors and defense attorneys. Both have vowed to end the high turnover among the DA office's 72 attorneys and to make the operation more efficient. And both men have declined to talk about whether they would pursue the death penalty against Holmes, deferring to the current district attorney and a gag order in the case.
Yet there are key differences between the candidates, beyond their party affiliation — which may matter less than in past years in the traditionally Republican 18th. Their views about justice, for example, have been strongly shaped by the cases they've taken on over the years. In Feldman's case, that involves prosecuting some horrendous criminal defendants in the 1970s and defending others in the 1980s while in private practice, followed by his long tenure on the bench. Brauchler, too, has branched out beyond his comfort zone, albeit in a different direction — from prosecution duties in Jefferson County (including pushing for prison sentences for the gun suppliers of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold) to court-martial proceedings as a military prosecutor to civil and defense work.
There's also the matter of age. Feldman is 64; Brauchler is 42. In debates, Feldman has stressed his edge in actual trial experience, while Brauchler has presented himself as the more innovative, dynamic candidate, someone who pioneered the use of PowerPoint in Jeffco criminal cases and now trains other prosecutors in how to be effective.
"He uses the word 'energy' about five times per forum," says Feldman of his opponent. "In his view, I'm old. And he has this bizarre claim that he's the outsider and I'm the government. He's trying to run as the consummate outsider."
