DeRosier, Chesson hold debate
Published 10:53 am Thursday, October 9, 2014
The two candidates for Calcasieu Parish District Attorney faced off in an hour-long debate Wednesday in the Police Jury building.
Christian Chesson is running against incumbent John DeRosier in the Nov. 4 election. Wednesday’s forum was hosted by the local League of Women Voters.
DeRosier has served the last nine years as Calcasieu’s top prosecutor. Chesson said he is running because, in his 20 years of experience, he has seen the court system become more and more clogged.
DeRosier said drug-related cases are the most urgent issues the DA’s Office face.
“If we did not have to deal with the problem of collection and distribution of dangerous drugs to the people in our parish, we could eliminate probably 70 percent of all the criminal cases we have,” DeRosier said. Most of the burglaries in the parish are drug-related, he said.
Chesson said the “crowded judicial system” needs to be alleviated.
“I feel that by doing a whole separate area for drugs and other non-violent criminals and taking the burden off the criminal justice system would help us rehabilitate people … but also protecting the public by putting them in alternative programs,” Chesson said. “I think if I take these drug offenders and other people that are non-violent and put them in programs where they are not going to be a threat to the public, I think it opens up the system so that we can prosecute and identify violent, sex offenders and get them off the streets quick.”
When asked what the DA’s Office policy should be for prosecuting marijuana offenses, both said it should be to follow the law.
Chesson said he doesn’t believe marijuana should be legal, but that “lesser penalties” should be administered. He said he would like to see a program in place to keep young people from becoming felons for second-offense marijuana possession, “but also find additional alternative programs to treat them so that they don’t fall into a life of crime because they smoked marijuana.”
“It is my personal position that marijuana should not be legalized for recreational use,” DeRosier said. “We also have to recognize, however, that relative to penalties for small amounts of marijuana, that when it comes time to putting people in prison, times have changed a little bit.”
In the 1960s and 1970s, all marijuana possession was a felony, but “it has acclimated in our society whether we want it or not,” he said. “We ought to prosecute when it’s warranted, but the penalty should be slight for possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use.”
Three groups of Houston gangs have been accused of coming to the parish over the past few years to burglarize homes and businesses.
When asked what steps should be taken to keep gangs out, DeRosier said “No. 1, put up billboards on the interstate telling them that we don’t want them over here.”
“We need to send a message to these people by whatever means are available, ‘do not come to Louisiana to commit crimes.’ As soon as we get that message across, then they will understand we don’t want them over here. The way to do that is to be tough on crime. If they are a member of a gang, full-court press every time.”
Chesson said “a self-serving billboard is not likely going to deter someone. It may actually make them think they need to stop and commit crimes.”
Resources need to be applied to prosecuting theft, which will, in turn, deter gangs, Chesson said.
When asked how to make the court system more efficient, Chesson said he would also like to see violent offenders prosecuted separately from non-violent offenders. He said he would reach out to people who are arrested, rather than wait “months and months for a court date for them to fall back into a life of crime or whatever addiction they may face.” If people can be rehabilitated, that will take the burden off the court system, he said.
DeRosier said he would like to see a system put into place that would allot all cases by date, meaning that it would immediately be known which assistant district attorney would handle the case. That would create a “vertical prosecution,” in which the ADA could travel to the scenes of murders he would be prosecuting. DeRosier said he would also like to combine right to counsel and probable cause hearings, as well as possibly misdemeanor arraignments.