Dear San Diego County Community,
It’s my honor to serve you as District Attorney during these unprecedented times and I wanted to provide some information about access to our criminal justice system amid the response to the Coronavirus. I would also like to give you some updates about proactive steps our office is taking to continue to safeguard neighborhoods. While residents continue to shelter in place, the District Attorney’s office is adapting to find new ways to protect victims of crime, to prevent crime before it happens, and to safely prosecute those who harm others.
San Diego County Courts are scheduled to remain closed through the end of April, however, we anticipate that the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court may extend the court closure. Emergency functions like restraining orders and protective orders, and time-sensitive criminal cases are still taking place. The San Diego Superior Court’s website has useful updates. Our DA team is working with the Presiding Judge and the Public Defender to give the public access to justice during this pandemic. Virtual hearings have been implemented throughout the county.
From the moment we realized the courts would likely close, the San Diego District Attorney’s office sought to lessen the impact of coronavirus on the jail population. We coordinated with the Public Defender, the City Attorney, the Sheriff and the courts to release individuals arrested for low level, non-violent crimes and individuals who cannot afford bail or would have been released if the court was open. We employed our own revised emergency bail schedule to conduct virtual bail hearings, early releases and a review of vulnerable inmates. We expanded our existing assessment tools that rely on objective criteria rather than wealth or status. The Judicial Council of California implemented a statewide emergency bail schedule and we listed those eligible and those seeking judicial review due to the nature of their crimes.
During this crisis, scammers are exploiting vulnerable citizens with price gouging, charity scams, miracle cures, and phony text messages, emails and social media posts. During a declared state of emergency, it is illegal to increase prices for essential goods or services by more than 10 percent unless their own costs have increased. We will not tolerate people taking advantage of consumers. Our tip line has fielded over 367 claims of price gouging for essentials like masks, milk, water, eggs and toilet paper You can report price gouging to the District Attorney’s Consumer Hotline at (619) 531-3507 or online at https://oag.ca.gov/report.
COVID-19 can also trigger Economic Impact Payment Scams so our office joined the IRS to warn the public about scammers attempting to steal your personal information and your money. The IRS will not call you to verify your payment details or to get your bank account information. Delete any emails or texts requesting your personal information and do not engage with scammers who call you. Visit www.irs.gov or www.irs.gov/coronavirus for the latest information.
While the stay-at-home rules are helping to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, we know that home is not always safe. Stressors like losing a job and having kids at home can trigger domestic violence. We have already seen devastating examples in the form of DV-related murders. Our office set up a new domestic violence resource website set accessible through the District Attorney’s website at www.SanDiegoDA.com. This website provides information on free services providing shelter, food, diapers, etc. If you or someone you know is in danger, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-DV-LINKS. There is an online chat service and you can text LOVEIS to 22522. Anyone in immediate danger should call 911.
Protecting students from harm is also critical and you can still utilize our Student Safety Task Force to report suspected abuse of students at https://www.sdcda.org/helping/studentsafety/index.html
For anyone on juvenile or adult probation, the San Diego County Probation Department recommends you call your probation officer, rather than physically going in to the office. The number for adult probation is (619) 515-8202 and for juvenile probation is (858) 694-4600. If you have a court date or received a jury summons during the court closure, you will receive new information when the courts re-open.
Please stay safe as we continue to respond to this unprecedented public health crisis. More information on how our office is responding is available at DANewsCenter.com . If you have specific questions about available resources, please contact Community Partnership Prosecutor Cheryl Sueing-Jones at [email protected]. The San Diego County District Attorney’s office is standing with the community and we will get through this together.
Summer Stephan
San Diego County District Attorney
