DOUBLE STANDARD?

EDITOR: Now let me get this straight. According to an article in your
paper, a deputy district attorney, during the course of a hotly contested
and high-profile case, took a handgun to a firing range and, with the
assistance of a district attorney investigator, put the names of the
defense attorneys on target silhouettes and fired at them.

Instead of being brought before the State Bar for conduct unbecoming a
professional, being fired or, at the very least, reprimanded and placed on
leave pending an investigation, I am informed that the attorney in question
was given a promotion from a Deputy III to a Deputy IV.

I would bet the house that if a defense attorney put the names of Michael
Mullins and Greg Jacobs, or for that matter, any deputy district attorney's
name on a silhouette for his or her target practice, a SWAT team would come
to his or her home with a search warrant, arrest the attorney for, among
other things, terrorist threats, have all of his or her weapons confiscated
and subsequently destroyed, and the district attorney would request
disciplinary action against him or her by the State Bar. And, of course,
there would have been a demand from the District Attorney's Office for a
mistrial. A double standard? What do you think?

Victor S. Amstadter, Santa Rosa