Divisions

The Consumer and Environmental Protection Division is comprised of a consumer unit and an environmental unit. The Consumer Unit investigates and prosecutes unfair, fraudulent, and dishonest business practices which harm consumers and honest businesses. The Consumer Division also receives and investigates consumer complaints.

Learn more about the Consumer Protection Division. 

Domestic violence cases are some of the most difficult and sensitive cases to handle given the nature of the relationship between the parties. This unit consists of a specially trained staff of attorneys, investigators, a paralegal, and a victim/witness advocate who share the common goal of diligently seeking justice for domestic violence victims. The nine assigned attorneys are responsible for staffing three separate domestic violence courts as well as reviewing all cases that are submitted for filing. Once a case is filed, the attorney is then tasked with handling the matter from initial arraignment through sentencing and multiple reviews to ensure defendants are completing their required treatment programs.

Thanks to continued funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), the District Attorney’s Office has been able to maintain a specialized prosecution team to handle alcohol and drug-impaired driving cases. The office received an award of $500,000 for the 2022-2023 grant period, and $530,500 for the 2023-2024 program. This is the 20th year the DA’s office has received funding from OTS for a specialized DUI prosecution program. The number of cases reviewed by the DUI Unit increased from 179 in 2022, to 346 cases in 2023, including 23 cases involving a fatality. Of those 23 fatalities, 9 were filed as Watson murders, which is more than the prior three years combined.

The office has two felony teams that are responsible for a large majority of the felony cases handled in Fresno County. Each team is comprised of ten deputy district attorneys and is responsible for staffing six court departments each day of the week. In addition to handling a wide variety of cases including car theft, assault, robbery, burglary, attempted murder, and weapons possession offenses, the attorneys are often also tasked with tracking down other members of the office who may have to appear in multiple courtrooms. The assigned attorneys handle their cases from initial arraignment through sentencing, as well as any post release supervision violations (probation, mandatory supervised release, post release community supervision, parole).

Fraud and corruption are widespread and comes in many forms. As a result, the District Attorney’s Office has several smaller units that handle a variety of financial crimes. Those units include Consumer and Environmental Protection, Real Estate Fraud, the Help Eliminate Auto Theft (HEAT) Unit, Workers’ Compensation Fraud, Auto Insurance Fraud, Rural Crimes, Identity Theft, Welfare Fraud, and Major Fraud. Many of these units only have one attorney who is responsible for handling all aspects of the case from filing through sentencing.

The Consumer and Environmental Protection Unit is unique in that in addition to criminal cases, the unit can also file civil cases and seek financial settlements. In fiscal year 2019-2020, the unit generated $157,639 in settlements from companies like Pep Boys and Walker Farms. In 2020-2021, settlements generated $429,778 from companies including CarMax, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kelly Moore, Walgreens, Chewy, and Ross, and in 2021-2022, settlements brought in $435,263 from companies including Copart, Pong Marketing, and Holland.

The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office has been part of the Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium (MAGEC) since its inception in 1997. The unit consists of a team of four dedicated deputy district attorneys who work alongside law enforcement officers from the Fresno Police Department, Fresno Sheriff’s Office, the United States Attorney, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Homeland Security, California Highway Patrol, California Department of Justice, Fresno County Probation, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as well as other local law enforcement partners. Members of MAGEC work together to identify gang members and bring them to justice. In addition to traditional boots on the ground methods, MAGEC also relies on cutting edge technology to track gang members no matter where they hide or how they try to conceal evidence. The MAGEC unit also handles all of the human trafficking cases that come into the office. Their ability to work closely with specialized law enforcement officers allows them to successfully prosecute these complex cases.

The Homicide Unit is made up of eight deputy district attorneys and two paralegals and is responsible for handling some of the most complex and high-profile cases in the office. Most attorneys have had several years of experience in other assignments before joining the unit. Attorneys are responsible for handling their cases from initial arraignment through trial and sentencing.

A person seventeen years of age or younger is a legal minor and comes within the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court. Their cases are processed differently than adults and for the most part are handled in closed confidential court proceeding. Unlike the adult system where the police directly send requests for criminal charges to our office, the juvenile system requires the police to first direct their request for charges to the Juvenile Probation Department.

A number of diversion programs exist both at the local police level and at the Juvenile Probation Department level that often results in a minor being placed in a focused treatment program in advance of the filing of formal criminal charges. If these diversion approaches show positive results, the minor may never face formal charging.

Juvenile Probation may in a number of cases decide that filing of formal criminal charging is needed. Our office will review their requests and will authorize, when the evidence is sufficient, the filing of a juvenile petition [charging document].

Under certain specified circumstances, a juvenile can be prosecuted as an adult and will be removed from the juvenile court system. These adult certifications are not frequent but will occur when situations demand such an action. Procedures now exist that permit our office, without prior judicial authorization, to directly file certain serious and/or violent offenses in the adult court system. Direct filing is a process that will be used when appropriate, but only after a careful review of the alternatives available.

After a conviction, the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office continues to fight for justice by attending inmate’s parole hearings conducted by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Attorneys from the unit will review the inmate’s commitment crime, the actions of the inmate while incarcerated, facilitate the attendance of victim’s or their next of kin and attend the parole hearing. At the parole hearing, the parole board must determine if the inmate will pose an unreasonable risk of danger to society if released from prison. The assigned attorney will advocate on behalf of the victims and the local community to ensure the parole board reaches the appropriate decision. 

New attorneys at the District Attorney’s Office generally begin their career in the Misdemeanor Unit. The younger attorneys face a steep learning curve as the four misdemeanor courts handle more cases than any of the other units. In 2023 alone, over 13,000 new misdemeanor cases were filed. In an effort to help the attorneys learn their role in the criminal justice system, the office has thirteen attorneys assigned to cover the four courts. Attorneys in this assignment are responsible for reviewing all case filings submitted, making a filing decision, and then handling the case from initial arraignment through trial and sentencing as well as handling any appeals that may be filed. These new attorneys put in long days fighting for justice for our community.

In addition to their regular duties, 18 attorneys and 20 investigators are also assigned to the Officer Involved Shooting Team. One attorney and one investigator are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for a week at a time. Most attorney/investigator pairs end up being on call for three weeks out of the year. When on call, the pair is responsible for responding to any situation where a law enforcement officer fires his/her weapon, or when a suspect dies while in-custody.

When the call comes in during the middle of the night, the attorney and investigator respond to the scene of the shooting, get a summary of what happened, and interview all witnesses involved. If anyone dies, they are also responsible for attending the autopsy. Once all of the information has been gathered, the attorney is tasked with writing a report summarizing the events and providing their legal opinion as to if the shooting was justified or not or if there was anything suspicious about the in-custody death.

 The Post Conviction Unit handles the collateral attacks on convictions by seeking to maintain sentences where justice warrants. The unit’s attorneys will seek appellate review in the Fresno Superior Court in misdemeanor cases. Additionally, they will handle extraordinary writs in the Fresno Superior Court and the 5^th District California Court of Appeals. Many of these writs involve habeas corpus litigation including capital litigation. Habeas litigation often involves complex legal issues that must be completed within narrow time frames. 

The Prison Crimes Unit is responsible for prosecuting all crimes committed at a state prison facility and the State Hospital located in Fresno County. This includes crimes committed by inmates, staff, and visitors as well as state prison inmates in transit or in escape status. The Prison Crimes Unit is a vertical prosecution unit where the assigned attorney handles a case from filing to arraignment through sentencing whether resolved by trial or by plea. These crimes range from drug or weapons possession, assaults on a correctional officer or staff, all the way up to homicides. 

The Public Integrity unit has a specially designated prosecutor who works closely with assigned investigative staff to follow up on any complaints the office may receive relating to a public official’s misdeeds. The unit is also responsible for investigating claims regarding voter fraud and other issues related to local elections. The one attorney and two investigators follow up on all complaints that are submitted to determine if a full investigation is necessary.

Learn more about the Public Integrity Division.

The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office Real Estate Fraud Division investigates and prosecutes real estate fraud related cases occurring in Fresno County. Some of the types of cases considered for investigation by this office are fraudulent transfers of title to real property, recording of false documents with the County Recorder’s Office, forgeries, foreclosure assistance scams, elder abuse, embezzlement, theft and other types of mortgage fraud.

Learn more about the Real Estate Fraud Division.

This unit consists of eight deputy district attorneys and one paralegal who are responsible for prosecuting a wide range of felony sexual assault offenses committed against children and adults. These include offenses committed by family members, acquaintances, or strangers. The unit also handles felony physical abuse and child endangerment crimes committed against children.

Attorneys in this assignment must learn how to deal with younger victims who often do not want to discuss what has happened to them. One investigative tool that is helpful in these cases is the Multidisciplinary Interview (MDIC). A MDIC is designed to reduce the number of interviews and decrease the number of people a child or dependent adult victim or witness needs to talk to. The goal is to create a friendly environment where the person can feel safe and comfortable while being interviewed by a trained professional. While the interview is conducted by a professional, attorneys from this unit attend as many of the MDICs as possible, viewing them from an observation room and being able to request follow-up questions as needed. This provides the attorneys with a firsthand account of what happened without having to reinterview the victim or witness. 

Workers' compensation fraud poses a huge problem in Fresno County. Fraudulent claims have cost the region jobs, chasing companies to other states where they can avoid paying the accelerated costs of workers' compensation insurance. Fraudulent claims have also undermined the integrity of the system, causing unnecessary delays in treating real injuries and cast a shadow over the thousands of legitimate claims that are filed each year.

The District Attorney's Workers' Compensation Fraud Division has pursued an aggressive campaign to identify, investigate and prosecute workers' compensation fraud. This crime which is committed by doctors, lawyers, employers, insurance company employees and claimants occurs in both the private and public sectors.

Learn more about the Workers' Compensation Fraud Division.