DA talks legislative plans, truancy

link Andrea Reeb

Editor’s note: The following is one in a series of continuing question-and-answer sessions with area leaders. Andrea Reeb is the 9th Judicial District attorney.

Question: You are working on reversing a state Supreme Court ruling last year that says only one charge of possession of child pornography can be brought, even if a defendant has multiple illegal images. Can you provide an update?

Reeb: “Rep. Randy Crowder (R-Clovis) sponsored a bill last (legislative) session, and I went up there also with him and we argued to get that through. We pushed it through the House with no opposition and then we got stalled in the Senate.

“We’ll go back up again this session and try to change it so we can actually get a law that punishes per image verses thousands of images as one count.

“It doesn’t affect any cases that have already (pleaded) or any case that are serving sentences. It does affect everything from change of the law until we get it changed.”

Q: Is there a balance between one count and thousands of counts?

Reeb: “Basically, the defense side is saying you’re exposing them to thousands of counts of jail time. That’s not right.

“Our argument is each image is a victim that’s been exposed and it’s going to be repeatedly downloaded thousands of times and each time it’s downloaded the child is revictimized.

“We could go in and charge thousands of counts, but realistically, that’s not what happens.

“So we pick a good handful of counts so we can ask for a big sentence. But ultimately the judge is the gatekeeper, so there’s a check in place.”

Q: Truancy statewide is up from 2012-2013 to the 2013-2014 school years, especially in middle school. Are you seeing the same trend in your district?

Reeb: “We have the same problem as across the state for middle (school) and high school children. There’s no law that you can do anything to a child for not attending school, so we aim more for the elementary-age kids where a parent maybe is not sending them to school.

“In Clovis and Portales, with our Abolish Chronic Truancy program, we’ve actually seen the numbers of kids in school and wanting to be in school going up. And we can tell by our drawings for perfect attendance going up and up and up.

“The kids that are in middle school, they go through the juvenile probation office and they try to work with the child and the parents to get this child to go to school.

“I feel at least in our community that our numbers are good and we’re trying to take a proactive approach and give (students) incentives to stay in school.

“We need a law that will do something to these middle (school) kids that parents are dropping off at the door and they’re taking off. And there’s not a lot you can do to a parent about that.”

Q: What is the toughest criminal activity to police?

Reeb: “One thing that we’ve noticed that’s been very difficult for us is repeat offenders.

“There’s a new case that came down recently, State v. Brown, and it really loosened the restrictions on somebody being in jail pending trial. So we’re struggling with keeping offenders, both violent and non-violent, in jail pending trial.

“If you’ve noticed, the (local) jail numbers are very low. You don’t hear too much about that anymore. The bonds are very low from the judges, and I think they’re trying to follow (the ruling in) that case.

“But what is very frustrating to us is we have people who have committed three, four or five felonies and they’re still out on bond. They might fail to show up for a court hearing and they get turned right back out on a bond.”

Q: Would it be a crime if a county clerk declined to issue a same-sex marriage license and would you prosecute it?

Reeb: “I haven’t seen the actual statute, so I would have to look at it, but if it was on the books and it was an actual crime, it doesn’t matter, personal opinion aside, we would prosecute anybody who did not follow the law.

“You can’t just decide, ‘I’m going to enforce this law and I’m not that law,’ because of your personal opinion.”

— Compiled by Rick White, correspondent