OPPONENTS LAY INTO COOLEY CANDIDATES SAY D.A. ISN'T FIGHTING CRIME HARD ENOUGH.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

The five people running against District Attorney Steve Cooley in the March 2 election have accused the Toluca Lake Republican of doing little to combat gang violence, dropping the ball on major investigations and going easy on high-level government corruption.

The challengers - three from Cooley's office, a former city councilman and an environmental lawyer - intend to raise enough questions about the job Cooley has done in his first four years in office to force him into a runoff in November.

They have criticized Cooley for dropping investigations into the Belmont Learning Center and Newhall Land and Farming Co.

``With the Belmont Learning Center and Newhall Ranch, it just seems Cooley is a pushover for the special interests,'' said challenger and Deputy District Attorney Denise Moehlman, 44. ``If there is a campaign contributor of his or a big influential person involved, he won't get involved.''

Cooley said the public corruption units he formed have not just gone after the ``little guys,'' but have prosecuted several high-profile cases, including Cody Cluff, the president of the scandal-plagued Entertainment Industry Development Corp. who allegedly ran up more than $1 million in expenses on lavish entertainment and travel. Cooley said the evidence in the Belmont and Newhall cases didn't justify criminal charges.

Cooley said his opponents are motivated by ``spite and vanity'' and are a ``funny, odd collection of people.''

Political analysts say the district attorney may be the county's most politically vulnerable elected official because insiders with detrimental information about their boss can call into question the job he is doing. But Cooley has amassed a $1 million war chest, which some observers say may be enough for him to fend off challengers.

``I think part of my being skeptical is so far there hasn't been a Democrat in the race who appears to be in a position to raise that kind of money,'' said Rafael Sonenshein, a political science professor at California State University, Fullerton. ``A Republican D.A. would have to worry about a Democrat who could do that.''

In a poll conducted for challenger and former Los Angeles City Councilman Nick Pacheco, 36 percent of voters preferred Cooley - far short of the more than 50 percent he needs on March 2 to be re-elected without a runoff.

However, Cooley's campaign officials say their own surveys show the Republican prosecutor was in the ``mid-40s to 60s'' in polls while other candidates were in the ``single digits.''

Cooley, 56, has touted the successes of several high-profile cases, including the conviction of former Symbionese Liberation Army ``soldier'' Kathleen Soliah and the creation of special divisions to prosecute corruption in government and the justice system.

Cooley's Public Integrity Division, which prosecutes crimes involving public officials and public employees, has reviewed more than 950 complaints since the office was formed in 2001 and filed 70 criminal cases. Of those, the office has obtained 56 convictions ranging from voter fraud to embezzlement to candidate residency violations. Cooley's Justice System Integrity Division has filed 183 criminal cases since 2001.

Pacheco, 39, said he's not impressed by a unit that filed 70 criminal cases out of 950 reviewed.

Environmental lawyer Roger Carrick, who represented the city in 1991 in stopping the state from spraying the pesticide malathion in an urban area, said the public should look at the list of public officials Cooley has prosecuted.

``The list includes mostly officeholders from smaller cities in the county and the overwhelming majority are African-American and Latino,'' Carrick said.

``I suggest you juxtapose that with his record on Belmont, which involved some of the most important business interests in the city, or Newhall, the largest development in California history. I submit that Cooley fails to take on big special interests and that's a big problem.''

The challengers say Cooley failed to quell gang violence and adequately reduce homicides, noting that Los Angeles had 658 homicides in 2002. The number has declined under Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton to about 506 homicides in 2003, and Los Angeles is now ranked third behind New York City and Chicago.

``We didn't become the murder capital of the United States until Steve Cooley had been in office for two years,'' said Tom Higgins, head deputy of the Workers' Compensation Fraud Division in the District Attorney's Office and another of Cooley's challengers.

Cooley's opponents say his policies - which they describe as a lenient ``three strikes'' policy on nonviolent third offenses, gutting of crime prevention programs and allocation of too many resources to victimless crimes - have contributed to rising gang homicide rates in unincorporated areas and cities the Sheriff's Department patrols.

Cooley said the overall conviction rate by his Hardcore Gang Division has risen from 87 percent in 2001 to 94 percent in 2003. The conviction rate for murders went from 90 percent in 2001 to 94 percent in 2003, and the conviction rate for attempted murders jumped from 74 percent in 2001 to 93 percent in 2003.

Higgins is critical of Cooley's new three-strike policy not to seek sentences for minor, nonviolent third crimes. As a result, Higgins said, Cooley only pursues three-strike sentences in less than 1 percent of the 1,600 of those potential cases a year.

Higgins said statistics from nearby counties show 25 percent to 30 percent of these offenders who commit a nonviolent third offense still pose a significant threat of committing another violent offense.

``I've talked to prosecutors throughout the state and they are just aghast at what happens here,'' Higgins said.

But Cooley said his three-strikes policy addresses concerns that people were getting lengthy prison sentences for shoplifting and other minor crimes.

Cooley's challengers also contend that he has not lived up to his 2000 campaign promise to root out corruption in government.

``The reality is there is a lot of corruption in the county, but the last major corporate prosecution was Charles Keating and that was 13 years ago,'' said former Deputy District Attorney Anthony Patchett.

The challengers also criticize Cooley for his handling of prosecutions in the LAPD Rampart Division police corruption cases. Although several police officers were convicted and sentenced to prison, Cooley declined to file charges on dozens of other cases, disbanded the Rampart task force and issued a report critics said downplayed the depth of the scandal.

``He didn't deliver on his campaign promise to prosecute bad cops coming out of Rampart,'' Pacheco said.

But Cooley said he inherited the ``Rampart mess'' from former District Attorney Gil Garcetti.

``It was handled very well in terms of the cases that came to us,'' Cooley said. ``We obtained nine convictions.''

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

THE CANDIDATES

Five challengers are vying to unseat District Attorney Steve Cooley, a Toluca Lake resident who joined the D.A.'s Office in 1973 and was elected D.A. four years ago.

Nick Pacheco, 39, an Eagle Rock Democrat who worked as a deputy district attorney from 1995-1999 and served as a Los Angeles city councilman from 1999-2003. Pacheco has raised $50,000 and said he has commitments for $200,000.

Tom Higgins, 62, is a La Verne Republican and 34-year veteran of the D.A.'s Office who has spent the past 16 years as a head deputy of the juvenile divisions and workers' compensation divisions. Higgins has raised $25,000.

Roger Carrick, 52, a Los Angeles Democrat and 24-year veteran attorney who worked for the state attorney general and former Gov. Jerry Brown, led the investigation by the Los Angeles Unified School District's inspector general into the Belmont Learning Center. Carrick said he has contributions and pledges totaling $100,000.

Denise Moehlman, 44, a Marina del Rey Democrat and 15-year veteran deputy district attorney who has successfully prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases putting murderers, sex offenders and robbers behind bars. She hopes to raise $75,000 to $150,000.

Anthony Patchett, 64, a Glendale Democrat who worked in the D.A.'s Office from 1967 to 2001 and as the special assistant on the Belmont Task Force who recommended the indictment of numerous individuals involved in construction of the $175 million school on an old oil field. Patchett has raised $30,000 and hopes to raise $80,000.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Steve Cooley

(2) Roger Carrick

(3) Tom Higgins

(4) Denise Moehlman

(5) Nick Pacheco

(6) Anthony Patchett

Box:

THE CANDIDATES (see text)