To: Jeff Rosen, District Attorney, Santa Clara County
DA Jeff Rosen - stop protecting criminals!
Subject - Eliminate District Attorney Office policy that reduces criminal charges to protect immigrants from deportation
We are residents and voters in Santa Clara County, and many of us are immigrants ourselves.
We strongly protest the DA Office policy, recently revealed in news reports covering the Abhishek Gattani case, that your office has a policy of ensuring that criminal charges do not result in deportations. In this instance, news reports make clear that as part of this policy, the charges against Gattani were reduced to “misdemeanor offensive touching”, to ensure that Gattani’s immigration status was not jeopardized.
This transparently political and self-serving policy deprives victims of the redress they deserve.
We demand that your office abandon this policy, and also that you charge Gattani with the higher-level felony charge that his actions warrant. However, we do not seek justice merely for Neha Rastogi. The law should not operate differently for highly educated members of the high-tech community. We insist that your office revisit all such cases and lodge charges appropriately, and make a public pledge never again to tacitly or explicitly play politics or favorites with the laws you are sworn to uphold.
Absent this clear action, we pledge to vote against you in the June 2018 election, and to organize to spread the word to our fellow voters in Santa Clara County.
We are residents and voters in Santa Clara County, and many of us are immigrants ourselves.
We strongly protest the DA Office policy, recently revealed in news reports covering the Abhishek Gattani case, that your office has a policy of ensuring that criminal charges do not result in deportations. In this instance, news reports make clear that as part of this policy, the charges against Gattani were reduced to “misdemeanor offensive touching”, to ensure that Gattani’s immigration status was not jeopardized.
This transparently political and self-serving policy deprives victims of the redress they deserve.
We demand that your office abandon this policy, and also that you charge Gattani with the higher-level felony charge that his actions warrant. However, we do not seek justice merely for Neha Rastogi. The law should not operate differently for highly educated members of the high-tech community. We insist that your office revisit all such cases and lodge charges appropriately, and make a public pledge never again to tacitly or explicitly play politics or favorites with the laws you are sworn to uphold.
Absent this clear action, we pledge to vote against you in the June 2018 election, and to organize to spread the word to our fellow voters in Santa Clara County.
Why is this important?
I am a resident of Santa Clara County and an immigrant from India myself. I am appalled by the politics and self-serving attitudes of judges and DAs in the county. Like the Brock Turner case, we have officials sworn to serve the public who are instead pursuing private political and personal agendas.