YOLO COUNTY, Calif. — The Yolo County District Attorney is speaking out against two Yolo County public defenders interviewed on ABC10 regarding racial disparities in the justice system.
The public defenders were interviewed following a protest held by public defenders around the country. The protest was to show solidarity to the Black Lives Matter movement and to highlight the injustices they see daily in the courtroom.
"Honestly we see Black people go to prison for crimes that white people don't go to prison for," said Tracie Olson, Yolo County public defender during the interview on June 10. Public defender Monica Brushia also took part in the interview.
The Yolo County District Attorney reached out to us after that story aired saying their claims are not true.
"It's something I never heard before, and I was so troubled by the allegations that I reached out to the FBI and confirmed they have never been told of this, and no member of local law enforcement police chief or sheriff had ever heard this allegation before," stated Jeff Reisig, Yolo County District Attorney.
Olson says she stands by her every word including her statement that there was an 800% over representation of Black men and women in the county jail on April 20th.
She gave ABC10 the log for that day, however, it shows minimal information such as name, race, age, and sex.
The district attorney said he looked into the numbers for that day and they were taken out of context and inaccurate.
"Just flabbergasted by her use of the statistic suggesting Yolo County incarceration for Black people was so excessive and wildly exaggerated and wildly inaccurate," Reisig said.
ABC10 also requested cases that the public defender says show racial disparities and gave them to the district attorney.
"This is what I find so interesting," Reisig said. "I'm hearing this for the first time from you right now. Again I've been the D.A. for 14 years. Her allegations, I should say. She's been the public defender for ten. She never called me and said, 'Jeff, we have a problem with racial disparities in the sentences,' and here we are."
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Reisig stated that the county doesn't have an issue based on the claims that he is aware of and gave ABC10 stats from various sources including the California Sentencing Institute.
Olson was unavailable for another interview with us, however a county spokesperson emailed us on her behalf.
Olson says they are not looking to divide people and she says the issue is much bigger than these cases. She wants to show things need to change and discussions need to happen.
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