An Utter Lack of Vision

"Some people, and this may sound sick to you or I, but some people actually molest out of different feelings, some times out of feelings of love.”

In an interview with the Eureka Reporter, Gallegos seeks to explain the decline in the prosecution of child abusers...

His rambling answers run the gamut:

""When asked about declining prosecution rates earlier this week, Gallegos said, “As for a decline in prosecutions, if there are declining prosecutions, that’s because there are declining cases. If there are declining cases, we have certainly looked into that."

“... We broke it down and looked at the numbers and saw that where the decrease has been is in the stranger offenders,” he said. “So the next question is why, and we don’t have a good answer for that yet. The theory in my head, even though we don’t have enough data yet, but it’s probably public education and education of parents.

“It may have a certain amount to do with Jessica’s Law, to do with notification. A certain amount is probably the general neurosis or fear in society about law officers because they get so much air time because people are less certain about the safety of their kids these days.

“My suspicion,” he continued, “even though we don’t have enough data, is that there is self-policing activity on the part of individuals that is probably reducing the stranger (cases). Most of your repeat offenders are your stranger offenders. … The data that we get, that we see is that most familiar offenders — those are the people less likely to re-offend — there is a whole dynamic involved in that, but it’s the stranger (on child) that is the most recidivistic. … Some people, and this may sound sick to you or I, but some people actually molest out of different feelings, some times out of feelings of love.”

His rambling comments were also heard on KINS Talk Shop where he opined that much child abuse is the "intrafamilial offender" and that they "don't tend to be re-offenders."

That must be reassuring to the siblings of abuse victims.

The Eureka Reporter article stated that "Based upon documentation obtained by The Eureka Reporter, the number of cases being referred to CAST from law enforcement agencies has not dramatically dropped off, but the number of cases accepted by the DA’s Office and the number of cases filed by the office have seen dramatic declines.

For example, based upon the documents’ first-quarter figures for 2006, there were four cases accepted by the DA’s Office — gleaned from 40 CAST interviews. Of those four cases, one was filed, two cases were rejected and one case has been received and was pending a filing decision at the end of the first quarter"

"“The decline in (child abuse) cases filed can be attributed to Paul’s lack of leadership and expertise,” (Allison) Jackson said. “This is not the attorneys; this is Paul. It is Paul’s utter lack of vision.”

"“Something is happening at the center and something is happening in the DA’s Office,” she said. “There is a huge problem here. This looks like an utter system breakdown — irrespective of the fact that you have great people, and they are some of the most fantastic people I’ve ever met who work in this field.”

“When you have 40 interviews going in (through the first three months of this year), and you extrapolate that out for the year, you are looking at about the same number of cases (being brought in by law enforcement), but you sure don’t have the same number coming out and the same number filed. Paul runs the program and he runs that office in name only.

“This all comes back to priorities. It’s not just incompetence, but it’s also an utter lack of priorities. These statistics are directly attributable solely and absolutely to Paul Gallegos. They are not attributable to anyone else. … This program used to work. ... These children aren’t slipping through the cracks. These children have been marched up to the Grand Canyon and kicked off. There is a huge difference when you only have one case that is prosecutable (through the first three months of this year).”

Read:
ER - Former deputy DA speaks out
Be sure to look at the statistics chart
ER - Candidates spar over child abuse team
ER - DA's Office yet to respond to request for child abuse records
ER - CAST established with child victims in mind
ER - CAST needs support Gallegos is not providing