Harris' officers seized video files from Daleiden's apartment. Daleiden said his "First Amendment work product" was taken. Daleiden characterized the search as "an attack on citizen journalism."
"Planned Parenthood's bought-and-paid-for AG has steadfastly refused to enforce the laws against the baby body parts traffickers," he said.
A federal judge has rejected Daleiden's journalistic claims, noting that the activist and his team used false identities, and selectively edited the material they captured on tiny cameras disguised as shirt buttons, despite state laws prohibiting secret recording.
Last summer, Harris said her office would investigate whether Daleiden and his agents violated state laws when they secretly recorded private meetings and closed-door conferences.
'It is often said that a good prosecutor wins convictions. But a great prosecutor has convictions. In the coming four years, we are going to do whatever it takes in the cause of protecting and defending the lives and livelihoods of all officer for the state, Harris plans to focus on reducing recidivism and on reforming the state's revolving door prison system. A major priority of her office will be to lead a renewed collaborative effort against transnational gangs and organized crime.
"If a business had a failure rate of that number, we would reorganize, we would reexamine and we would guide our approach by a well proven method which thinks about what is the return on our investment," Harris said. Instead, she said, the system's been all about "business as usual," meaning that it is dependent on imprisoning repeat wrongdoers, at a cost of about $47,000-per-year, per prison inmate. Harris said cutting the recidivism rate by just 10 percent could save the state $233 million annually.
DOJ staff will also help local law enforcement agencies find grants to develop technology to bring law enforcement into the digital age. "You'd be shocked at how obsolete we are," Harris said.
Officials whittled down the backlog by shifting cases among the state's seven crime labs that handle DNA testing. In addition, robotics helped reduce part of the process for analyzing sexual assault evidence from two days to two hours. Last year the labs analyzed 5,400 evidence samples, up from 4,800 in 2010 and 4,100 in 2009, according to the department.
The state's crime labs came under increasing pressure in January 2009, when Proposition 69 began requiring authorities to collect DNA samples from any adult arrested for a felony. But Jill Spriggs, who oversees the state forensic system, said that backlog is also gone. "That's been eliminated for almost a year now," she said.
Harris had charged Backpage executives with 13 counts of pimping and conspiracy to commit pimping. Harris said the new charges were based on new evidence. A judge threw out pimping charges against the men on 9 December, citing federal free-speech laws.
In the latest case, Harris claims Backpage illegally funneled money through multiple companies to get around banks that refused to process transactions. She also alleged that the company used photos of women from Backpage on other sites without their permission, to increase revenue, and knowingly profited from the proceeds of prostitution.
"By creating an online brothel--a hotbed of illicit & exploitative activity--[Backpage.com] preyed on vulnerable victims, including children, and profited from their exploitation," Harris said.
"Criminal gangs brazenly trafficking guns and drugs on our streets jeopardize public safety and will not be tolerated," said Attorney General Harris. These gangs traffic narcotics and illegal firearms, many of which were involved in crimes throughout Riverside County.
In 2014, Harris and the California Highway Patrol Commissioner worked to secure $9.4 million for California DOJ Bureau of Investigation's Special Operations Unit teams. These unique and essential teams use the latest technology and advanced investigative techniques and work alongside local law enforcement to enhance investigations into violent criminals and organized crime throughout the state.
Harris got a first-hand look at the clean-up efforts. Harris walked along the coastline, where crews are still dealing with the damage of more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil spilled. She met with the District Attorney to discuss the possibility of initiating criminal prosecutions relating to that spill. Harris said her office is looking into the company responsible, Plains All-American Pipeline, and said all options are on the table.
"It's something that we're taking very seriously and we've got boots on the ground. I've got almost a dozen attorneys combined with folks who are helping with our independent investigation with the local & state & federal agencies," said Harris.
A federal report released this week shows the ruptured portion of pipeline was corroded and its walls were at thin as 1/16th of an inch in some places. Harris called that information troubling.
"Equal protection under the law is a bedrock of our Constitution," said Harris. "I look forward to the day when all Californians are granted their full civil rights and can marry the person they love."
In 2010, a court invalidated Proposition 8 on the grounds that it violated the equal protection guarantee of the 14th Amendment by taking away the right of same-sex couples to marry. Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Harris both refused to defend Proposition 8 on the basis that the law is unconstitutional.
"The sole yet profound effect of Proposition 8 was to take away the right of gay and lesbian couples to call their union a 'marriage' and to strip loving relationships of validation and dignity under law," says the brief.
If elected, Harris would be "the first female, the first African-American, the first Asian-American attorney general in California and the first South Asian-American attorney general in the nation," according to her campaign literature.
Harris was born in Oakland and grew up in the liberal bastion of Berkeley during its 1960s-'70s heyday. Her parents attended graduate school there, and they took Harris to many civil rights protests, instilling in her a sense of social justice. Her first name means "lotus flower" in Sanskrit.
Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, immigrated from Chennai, India. Her father, Donald Harris, became a Stanford University economics professor.
She said that with the implementation of the eCrime Unit, she hopes that California can be a leader in using innovative law enforcement techniques to target these types of criminals.
The eCrime Unit will also provide investigative and prosecutorial support to the five California regional high-tech task forces funded through the High Technology Theft Apprehension and Prosecution Trust Fund Program. California had 10 of the top 25 metropolitan areas for identity-theft related consumer complaints in 2010.
Ending the foreclosure crisis has become Harris' signature issue. She often visits hard-hit neighborhoods. "You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them," Harris said. She successfully pushed through a first-of-its-kind Homeowner Bill of Rights. It requires banks to provide a single point of contact for California homeowners and stop the practice of dual tracking, in which lenders move ahead with a foreclosure, even while they're negotiating with the homeowner to modify a loan. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill into law this month.
Harris has taken on the country's biggest banks before, suing them for foreclosure abuses. Harris got $18 billion with $12 billion of that amount going toward helping underwater homeowners.
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The above quotations are from Attorney General offices Press Releases.
Click here for other excerpts from Attorney General offices Press Releases. Click here for other excerpts by Kamala Harris. Click here for a profile of Kamala Harris.
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