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COURIER TIMES ENDORSES ASPLEN FOR DA!
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October 29, 2009
For Immediate Release
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Contact
Neil Samuels
Deputy Chair
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A new approach
By: GUY PETROZIELLO Bucks County Courier Times
Candidates running for DA would bring significantly different leadership styles to the office. We endorse Democrat Chris Asplen.
Voters trying to pick the best candidate for Bucks County's chief law enforcement officer have their work cut out for them. Both candidates for district attorney, Republican Dave Heckler and Democrat Chris Asplen, have the credentials and the experience to do the job. So the good news is that voters can't make a bad choice.
What it comes down to, in our view, are the candidates' objectives and the manner in which they'd run the office, which includes 39 attorneys, 16 detectives, 34 support staff and a budget this year of $7.1 million.
The candidates' goals reflect their career paths but also generational differences - Heckler is 62 and Asplen 46. While both men worked as assistant DAs in Bucks County, Heckler remained a local fixture. He served in both the state House and the state Senate and was appointed to the county bench where he eventually was named president judge. He retired to run for district attorney, a job he said he has always coveted.
Heckler's primary objective is to bring more muscular management to the DA's office and develop a strong work ethic among the young attorneys there. Call him old style. He says he'd lead by example - arriving early and staying late.
The former state lawmaker and ex-judge says he'd be an effective mentor in an office in need of strong leadership. While the office does a good job preparing and prosecuting big cases, Heckler said too often from the bench he witnessed young prosecutors ill prepared to handle minor cases. His solution is to establish a system of prescreening, where needs and deficiencies are identified early and office resources committed to shore up a case before it heads to court.
Heckler also likes the idea of prosecutors developing expertise say in child abuse, Internet crime, etc. It's a system that fell by the wayside under former DA Diane Gibbons. Heckler would resurrect it. He'd also establish a Lower Bucks annex for the DA's office and pursue a joint forensics lab with other counties.
Heckler is not a fan of drug courts and makes a reasoned case that their marginal benefits are not worth the heavy cost. Besides, he argues, Bucks County already does an effective job of finding alternatives to warehousing first-time and minor drug offenders.
Asplen favors drug courts and, likewise, a Lower Bucks annex. He also would re-establish specialization in the DA's office, focus more resources on pursuing Internet predators and has promised to establish a task force on texting while driving, which he views as great a threat to highway safety as drunk driving. Call him new wave.
You have to be "smart on crime in order to be tough on crime," Asplen says. We're with him on that.
Following his time in Bucks County, Asplen went to work in Washington, D.C., as an assistant U.S. attorney. While at the Justice Department, he developed expertise in DNA evidence and later led the DNA unit of the National District Attorneys Association. He said he's trained thousands of prosecutors in the process and considers himself an able and admired teacher.
After leaving Justice, Asplen moved on to an international law firm for which he consulted and also lobbied for DNA legislation - thus his opponent's characterization of Asplen as a "Washington lobbyist."
We think the criticism is meant to avert attention from real issues and voters should dismiss it. Likewise, attempts to paint Heckler as a soft judge, in our view, are similarly off the mark.
More on target - and more worrisome - is the recent revelation that when still on the bench Heckler engaged in what some might describe as a road rage incident. Known for his crotchety personality and my-way-or-the-highway perspective, Heckler chased down a car that had rolled through a stop sign, got out, scolded the young driver while holding the door shut, and then reached inside the vehicle. Heckler said he tipped the man's hat back to see his face for identification purposes; the driver told police Heckler assaulted him.
The then-judge was not charged; the driver received a citation.
The now five-year-old incident was kept under wraps until county Democratic Party officials pursued investigative documents through legal channels. Some might consider it dirty fighting. Nonetheless, the revelation raises legitimate concerns about Heckler's judgment and his ability to effectively supervise younger charges. Will they fear him more than respect him? Already a revolving door, would the office lose prosecutors at an even faster pace?
These concerns haunted us in our decision and ultimately turned a majority of our editorial board members away from the otherwise highly qualified Republican candidate. With that revelation in mind and the Democratic candidate's impressive record mooring our decision, the Courier Times endorses Chris Asplen for district attorney.
October 29, 2009
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