Letter Writer Concerned about What She Characterizes as Deputy DA Roger Rees’ Bias

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Deputy DA Rees holding a holding protest sign that reads, “cut off baby heads.” Rees describes himself as a Zionist and was counter protesting a Pro Palestinian demonstration held at the Humboldt County Courthouse where he works. He was apparently presenting his perception of Pro Palestinian protesters’ stance–ie he appears to be saying that those who are against the war in Gaza are pro cutting off babies’ heads. [Photo provided by Shannon Townsend-Bettis]

Dear District Attorney Eads,

I am writing this public letter to you to express my deep concern for your professionalism, your ethics, and your ability to represent the people of Humboldt County. For at least the past 6 months, you have protected your subordinate, Senior Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees, as he continues to use his profession and workplace to express his political and religious views and ideologies and to continually harass and intimidate protestors, infringing on their right to free speech, in a manner that is escalating. As I write this,  it appears your subordinate took the day off work in order to stand outside your offices and wave his flag all day, greeting protestors as they are released from jail from the Cal Poly Humboldt action. I’m honestly wondering how any of these students should be prosecuted with such flagrant bias exuding from your office.

I didn’t vote for you. You have a track record of the status quo which I was already not happy with as a Humboldt County citizen, most notably your prosecution of the Marci Kitchen case and other failures of your mentor/predecessor in maintaining a ginormous backlog of cases, and in my opinion, a nonsensical manner of prioritizing cases. For context, I was a juror on a criminal DUI case of “who was driving” with a shoddy CHP report that should have never made it to trial and was a complete waste of public time and resources, whereas I am aware of extremely violent and disturbing cases that were immediately dropped by your department. In addition, I was involved in the animal cruelty case in 2016 of that poor dog caught on camera being abused by his owner, a habitual animal abuser, and after a hung jury, your office intended to return that poor dog to his abuser and luckily the community rallied and applied public pressure so that dog could live another day. In 2022, you ran your campaign on the tails of DA Fleming and bragged about working for Humboldt right out of law school for the last twenty years. For anyone who has had anything to do with your office for the last decade or so, we know what it needs is change, fresh new ideas and reinvigoration. But that is beside the point of this letter.

The reason I bring this up is I was reviewing statements you made during your campaign in 2022 and I found several relevant points. For instance, you told Redheaded Blackbelt, a challenge of the DA “is to maintain an office of ethical prosecutors.” You stated, “I think we have a well-staffed office of qualified prosecutors…..I will be continuously working to make sure this continues.” In addition, you stated that “one of the primary changes” you will make will be on “recruitment and retention.”   And that you hoped to go to law schools and “let them know we are looking….to diversify the office in term of viewpoints.” You go on to state that you value “serving the public” and describe yourself as having a “strong reputation for professionalism and ethics…..being very upfront and fair….having a strong sense of justice and compassion…and being open and appreciative of input from others.”

Back in December, I wrote you a letter expressing my deep concern about DA Roger Rees and his actions exhibiting partiality and bias on the issue of Israel and Palestine. I received no response or observed any change in his behavior. In fact, his behavior has continued to escalate and become more threatening. For example, on April 15^th, he called the police on protestors, alleging “assault and disturbing the peace”, for the fact that Palestine flags were flapping in the wind and touching counter protestors on a windy day. He made sure to tell the dispatcher there were over 24 people present. Eight police officers responded and left quickly thereafter due to no crimes being committed. Just to reiterate, the District Attorney of Humboldt County made a false police report with false statements intended to illicit a large response of our public officers, not only wasting their time and our precious public resources, but also only furthering the personal agenda of the DA in his attempts to harass and intimidate protestors, in using his position and power within law enforcement, to continue to infringe on their right to free speech. District Attorney, do you think that your office is serving the public when your senior DA continues to act in this manner? There are rumors circulating, most notably mentioned in now disgraced Judge Kreis’ complaint, that your subordinate has guns and a concealed carry permit and may even be wearing weapons as he continues his demonstrations against protestors on a weekly basis in front of your offices. Are you concerned for the safety of protestors in front of your office?

I am aware that the County of Humboldt is currently conducting some type of investigation into your subordinate. I have spoken with the personnel office, and they have been very responsive to my complaints, and I am aware there are others. Many of the complaints center around the display of a foreign flag in the public-facing window of your office, going back to at least November. The information I have requested from the County through the Freedom of Information Act has uncovered that the county has not removed the flag due to the nature of it being maintained inside a “personal workspace” and yet they are continuing their investigation into your subordinate as he continues to supposedly represent the people in the courtroom and practice law. So, the foreign flag in the public facing window of the highest office of law enforcement in the county remains and continues to influence public perception of what the District Attorney office and the County of Humboldt stands for. How as District Attorney, are you not able to supervise and discipline your own employees? I am aware that your office is low-staffed, most notably noticing two DA’s are leaving as reported by John Chiv last week.  Are you willing to allow the public image of your office to be tarnished to keep your most Senior prosecutor?

Respectfully, if you cannot even manage your subordinates, how are you supposed to be managing the most serious and violent criminal cases in our county? Your job is to be fair, impartial and maintain the highest ethical standards. I ask for you to do some self-reflection and consider what you are orR are not doing to maintain those values and either change or respectfully resign. I ask that you remember the promises you made during your campaign and the fact that your job is to represent the people, not your subordinates.

Shannon Townsend-Bettis

Eureka CA

Relevant videos provided by Shannon Townsend-Bettis:

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Earlier letter to Redheaded Blackbelt: Letter Writer Questions Deputy DA’s Behavior at Recent Protests