San Joaquin County Grand Jury • 2018-2019 • Agency Response

Cold Cases in San Joaquin County: On the Back Burner*

Published: July 17, 2019 7 pages
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Findings and Recommendations 8 findings

F1
0 - There is inconsistency and confusion regarding what defines a "cold case" amongst the law enforcement agencies in San Joaquin County. We agree with the Finding. Through the coordination of a joint effort amongst all countywide law enforcement agencies and the establishment of a Cold Case Task Force in the future, a working definition of the term "cold case" will be set forth in any Task Force protocol, procedure and memorandums of understanding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
- Each law enforcement agency in San Joaquin County develop a plan to define, prioritize, and digitally track cold case investigations no later than December 31, 2019. Prioritization will emphasize available physical evidence and utilize emerging DNA testing techniques. The San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office will implement this Recommendation in the future through the formation of the Cold Case Task Force. Through collaboration with countywide law enforcement agencies, the District Attorney's Office will develop a plan to define, prioritize and digitally track cold cases no later than the requested deadline of December 31, 2019.
F2
0 – There are more than 500 cold case homicides in San Joaquin County, including 12 homicide victims whose remains have never been positively identified. The exact number of cold case homicides is unknown due to the lack of a consistent written definition for "cold case" and the lack of a digitized tracking system. We agree with the second portion of this Finding. We agree the exact number of cold case homicides is unknown at this time. The development of a consistent written definition of a "cold case" and a tracking system will be priorities for the future Cold Case Task Force.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
– Each law enforcement agency in San Joaquin County expand their definition of "cold case" to include missing persons with suspicious circumstances, and sexual assault (forcible rape and attempted rape), in addition to homicide no later than December 31, 2019. This recommendation requires further analysis to determine the full scope and number of cases within each agency and the overall impact to investigative resources in expanding the "cold case" definition to include missing persons with suspicious circumstances and sexual assault cases in addition to the number of homicide cases. The members of the future Cold Case Task Force can assess their collective ability to prioritize cold case investigations given the overall number of cases within consideration of inclusion of the additional categories. As additional information, the California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 701, effective January 1, 2017, codifying Penal Code section 263.1 declaring all forms of nonconsensual sexual assault as rape for purposes of the gravity of the offense and the support of the survivors. The legal definition of rape is set forth within Penal Code section 261. There are expansive sections of the Penal Code defining acts involving sexual assault. Therefore, the application of this expanded cold case definition to include the number of unsolved sexual assault cases may be too industrious and require a limitation of which cases should realistically be included for "cold case" investigation.
F3
2 - Due to current inconsistencies in both defining and counting cold cases involving missing persons with suspicious circumstances, and sexual assaults, there is insufficient information to clearly determine the extent to which the number of those unsolved cases may be increasing. We agree with this Finding. Without a unified definition, and without a collective database, there is no current mechanism to analyze cold case data to determine whether the number of unsolved cases is increasing or not.
No recommendations for this finding
F4
0 – There is insufficient staffing for cold case investigations in San Joaquin County, primarily within the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department, the Stockton Police Department, and the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office. We agree with this Finding as it relates to this Department. We do not address the staffing levels of other law enforcement agencies in this response. As referenced above, the District Attorney Office sought and received funding for a Deputy District Attorney for the current 2019-2020 budget year. This Department did not receive any additional investigator positions for the current 2019-2020 budget year. However, we anticipate the renewed and collective focus on cold case investigations and prosecutions will lessen the overall number of cold cases countywide.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
– The San Joaquin County District Attorney utilize budget options and staffing reassignments as necessary to provide the equivalent of at least two full-time District Attorney Investigators dedicated solely to cold case investigations no later than December 31, 2019. The District Attorney will implement this Recommendation both in the future and by continuing to allocate and prioritize existing resources to investigate cold cases. As mentioned in section 4.0 of the Grand Jury report, the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office requested funding in its Fiscal Year 2018-2019 budget request for funding of positions dedicated to cold investigation and prosecution. This budget request did not receive funding, although other positions did receive funding. The San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office did again renew its request for funding of positions dedicated to cold case investigation and prosecution for Fiscal Year 2019-2020. The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors did approve funding for one Deputy District Attorney for Fiscal Year 2019-2020. The Office did not receive funding for additional investigator positions. The Department is prepared to continue to dedicate investigative resources to work cold cases in coordination with the members of the future Cold Case Task Force. The Department recently dedicated a full time investigator to cold case investigations.
F5
0 – There is insufficient funding for cold case investigations in San Joaquin County, primarily for the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department, the Stockton Police Department, and the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office. The lack of sufficient funding is due primarily to financial limitations and lack of priority. We partially disagree with this Finding. We agree there is a lack of funding for this Department to staff cold case investigators and prosecutors at the level needed to address the backlogged cases. This is what drove our previous budget requests for increased staffing in this area. We disagree there has been a lack of priority by the Department in allocating resources to address cold cases. While there is and has been a priority to address cold cases, the Department has not received sufficient funding to investigate the cold cases along with the full range of the Department's priorities. The Department continues to dialogue with detectives/investigators from all county law enforcement agencies on any cases they want to roundtable regarding consideration of all viable investigative methods and/or whether the agency is ready present the case for potential charges.
No recommendations for this finding
F6
0, F6.1, F6.2, F6.3, F6.4, F6.5, F7.0, F7.1, F7.2, F7.3, F7.4, and F8.0, in compliance with the provisions of Penal Code sections 933 and 933.05.
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
- The San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office develop a plan for a Cold Case Task Force to facilitate collaboration in investigating and prosecuting cold cases for all law enforcement agencies in San Joaquin County no later than December 31, 2019. The District Attorney's Office will implement the Recommendation in the future through the development of a plan for a Cold Case Task Force no later than December 31, 2019.
F7
0 - The elevation of cold case investigations as a priority is vital to the future success in investigating and solving cold cases in San Joaquin County. We agree with this Finding. As a collective Cold Case Task Force, it will be best to work together with the global prioritization of cases countywide and amongst law enforcement agencies.
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
- The San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office establish a Cold Case Task Force for all law enforcement agencies in San Joaquin County no later than March 31, 2020. The District Attorney's Office will implement this Recommendation in the future through the establishment of a Cold Case Task Force for all countywide law enforcement agencies no later than March 31, 2020.
F8
0 – There is no consistent procedure or practice for law enforcement agencies in San Joaquin County to maintain periodic contact with the family members of cold case victims. We agree with this Finding. The Victim Witness Program of the District Attorney's Office currently maintains contact with victims of crime and their families, including those associated with cold case investigations. This Department will continue to utilize its Victim Witness (advocacy) Program and coordinate with representatives of outside victim advocacy groups to assist the future Cold Case Task Force with the development of a unified procedure/practice for maintaining periodic contact with family members of cold case victims amongst law enforcement agencies. II. Responses to Recommendations We offer the following in response to the Recommendations set forth in R1, R2, R4, R6, R7, R8, R9, and
Related Recommendations (1)
R8
- Each law enforcement agency in San Joaquin County sign a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the newly formed Cold Case Task Force no later than March 31, 2020. The District Attorney's Office will implement this Recommendation in the future through the formation of the Cold Case Task Force and develop Partnership and Cooperation Agreements (typically referred to as a Memorandum of Understanding) with those agencies who are willing and able to participate as members of the Task Force no later than March 31, 2020.

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.