SUPERVISORS APPOINT SUMMER STEPHAN INTERIM DISTRICT ATTORNEY
East County News Service
June 20, 2017 (San Diego) -- The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to appoint current Chief Deputy District Attorney Summer Stephan as interim District Attorney. She will fill the vacancy left by the retirement of District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis on July 7.
The job is an elected post, but since Dumanis is retiring 18 months before her term ends, the Board is required to appoint an interim. Democrats have criticized the move as a ploy to install Summers, a Republican, making it all but inevitable that she would win reelection to the nonpartisan seat in November 2018.
At the June 20 hearing, the Board interviewed and reviewed the qualifications of three applicants: Stephan and former deputy district attorneys Adam Gordon and Gregory Walden. The Board members then voted to narrow down finalists. Supervisors could pick multiple candidates, and any candidate with three votes would proceed to a second hearing. Stephan garnered five votes, Walden got two votes and Gordon received one vote.
Since Stephan was the only finalist, the Board then voted 4-1, with Vice Chair Kristin Gaspar opposed, to appoint her immediately rather than hold a scheduled meeting on June 27 to review finalists and make its selection final.
Stephan has served as a deputy district attorney in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office for 27 years holding positions such as assistant chief, chief of the North County Branch, and chief of the Sex Crimes and Human Trafficking Division. She was appointed chief deputy district attorney in 2012. She has tried over 100 jury trials involving sexual assaults or homicides, human trafficking, child abuse or molestation, and a school shooting, according to her biography.
Her tenure was not without controversy, however. She led the prosecution of teenager Michael Crowe and two of his friends for the murder of his sister, 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe. Under intense grilling by Escondido Police detectives, Michael Crowe had confessed to the crime –but charges were dropped when Stephanie’s blood was found on the shirt of a transient, Richard Tuite. Tuite was later convicted, but the conviction was tossed out and he was acquitted at a second trial.
Dumanis is retiring after serving as District Attorney for almost 15 years. The Office of the District Attorney prosecutes felony crimes countywide and misdemeanor crimes in 18 cities and the unincorporated areas.