Feldman left Gallagher's office in 1980 to go into private practice. "I wanted to broaden my horizons, to be a complete lawyer," he explains. Like many ex-prosecutors, he often found himself defending the same sort of people he used to put away.
"People asked how I could represent somebody like that," he says. "My answer was always, How could I not? They're entitled to representation."
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
Related stories by Alan Prendergast from the
Westword archives:
“
Sucker Punch: ‘Big Bitch’ policy could bite fighting concertgoer,” May 22, 2012.
“
"Welcome to Arapahell,” November 24, 2011.
“
Carol Chambers under fire for giving witness a car in death-penalty case,” May 13, 2011.
“
Perez acquittal: A stunning rebuke of Chambers’s death-penalty chase?,” February 2, 2011.
“
The Good, the Bad and the Mad: What happens to the mentally ill in the justice system is crazy,” May 29, 2008.
“
Bad Execution: Judge blasts prosecution misconduct in death-penalty case,” April 10, 2008.
“
Arapahoe County DA charges death-penalty fees to the state,” February 28, 2008.
“
A Thumb on the Scales: The DA weighs in on the wrong case,” February 8, 2007.
“
Carol Chambers: The Punisher,” February 8, 2007.
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In 1991, Governor Roy Romer named Feldman as a county court judge. Over the past twenty years, voters have elected to retain him five times. His judicial performance evaluations, based on surveys of attorneys, witnesses, jurors and others who have seen him in action, have consistently been among the most positive in the district, giving him particularly high marks for fairness. Brauchler points out that many of the thousands of felony cases he's "handled" while on the bench come down to some preliminary processing before they shift to district court, but Feldman notes that he's conducted more than 250 jury trials and served as an acting judge in district court on several occasions as well.
His decision to step down and run for district attorney only a year into his latest term is unusual, Feldman concedes: "I was at the height of my judicial career. I could have stood for retention three more times."
But from his vantage point on the bench, Feldman could see the spreading miasma emanating from the DA's office. "The main problem was that cases weren't being resolved as quickly as they could be," he says. "Cases were taking eight months that could have been resolved the same way after two months. The people didn't seem to have the confidence to resolve them, and with the turnover, there were people who didn't have as much training or experience. Things were getting backed up."
Like Brauchler, Feldman had first been approached in 2008 about running for DA — but he didn't consider the timing right. Last fall, after some reflection on the matter, he decided it was. One of his declared priorities is to improve the training and retention of the district's prosecutors; Chambers "was really good at hiring good people," he says. "The problem is that they wouldn't stay. I want people to stay."
As a Democrat, Feldman would seem to have the longer odds in the race, but the 18th isn't the Republican lock it once was. Governor Bill Ritter prevailed among voters in the district in 2006, and Senator Mark Udall barely lost there in 2008. Chambers herself barely won re-election that year, squeaking by with a 23,000-vote margin out of more than 387,000 votes cast, against a Democrat who was not only barely funded, but a defense attorney, to boot.
Neither candidate is spending lavishly in this election, each having raised a campaign chest of between $75,000 and $100,000. But Feldman's long career in the judicial system has earned him an impressive array of endorsements from both sides of the aisle, including his former boss Gallagher (Republican); Brauchler's former boss, Dave Thomas (Democrat); Boulder DA Stan Garnett, Adams County DA Don Quick and Denver DA Mitch Morrissey (all Dems); and dozens of other former prosecutors and judges. Brauchler has garnered endorsements from several police unions and law enforcement officials, including the sheriffs of Douglas, Lincoln and Elbert counties, but Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson, a Republican, is backing Feldman.
Feldman hopes that voters, too, will look past blue and red in weighing his qualifications. But he and Brauchler are both facing an unforeseen development in the race, which may now come down to their views on the death penalty — and who the voters think will fare best in what could become an epic battle to try, convict and execute the man who opened fire in a packed Aurora theater last July.
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The closest thing to a donnybrook at the Brauchler-Feldman debates broke out a few weeks ago, when Feldman politely brought to Brauchler's attention a factual misstatement on his campaign website.
The statement, which Brauchler says he didn't write, claimed that he had "successfully taken to trial challenging cases such as the solicitation for murder of a sheriff's deputy by a jail inmate, a homicide committed by a fake naturopathic doctor, the murder of a captured detainee by a U.S. soldier, the felony cases from the Columbine tragedy, and many others."
Feldman points out that only one of the cases mentioned, the murder-for-hire case, resulted in a trial verdict. The soldier, David Lawrence, accused of shooting a captured Taliban commander in the face, pleaded guilty. So did the Columbine gun traffickers. The ersatz doctor copped a plea during jury selection.
Brauchler told Feldman he'd fix the error. Weeks later, the claim was still on the site; it was finally amended after Westword inquired about it two weeks ago. "This is language I didn't draft, but language I'm responsible for," Brauchler says.
At the same time, he regards Feldman's objection as so much hair-splitting. Both the Columbine case and the Lawrence case received extensive publicity, so it's not like he was trying to fool anyone, he says. And he still considers the doctor's case as one taken "to trial," even though that prosecution ended before any evidence was presented.
