Assistant DA quits after court confrontation

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An assistant district attorney has resigned amid allegations he threatened a public defender in magistrate court on Monday.

Public defender Sarah Field told Clovis police that a prosecutor “whispered to her that he was going to kill her and her children,” according to a criminal incident report.

No charges had been filed on Thursday. Interim Police Chief Doug Ford said an investigation into the incident is continuing.

The police report did not name the prosecutor, but it quoted Field saying the confrontation was spurred by a Clovis News Journal article. The article reported Field and ADA Adnan K. Raza discussed bond in a criminal case before Judge Duane Castleberry last week.

Field told the prosecutor, “I put in the newspaper that you lied,” the police report shows. That’s when he made the threat, she alleged.

Raza could not be reached for comment. Police were unable to locate a witness who heard the allegation, according to the report.

District Attorney Andrea Reeb said in a text message that Raza resigned “for his own personal reasons” that she would not discuss.

“However, I will say the resignation had nothing to do with the alleged incident.”

In a story first published at http://www.cnjonline.com on Sunday, Field alleged Raza had suggested a bond for an arson suspect be set at $40,000 cash or surety.

Reeb said Raza had told her he’d requested the bond be set at $40,000 cash only.

Judge Castleberry set the bond to include surety, which allowed a bonding agency to secure the suspect’s release from jail for $4,000.

Once prosecutors learned the suspect, Angie Madrid, was freed from jail, they filed additional charges and she was arrested about 30 minutes after she was freed. Madrid remained in Curry County jail on Thursday in lieu of $105,000 cash-only bond.

The police document reported Field and Raza “had an ongoing problem ever since (he) worked at the public defender’s office.”

Raza told police that Field was a “irreprehensible woman that all she’s trying to do is get him fired from the District Attorney’s office.”