Alexander was a former methamphetamine addict who derailed a promising Southern California law practice but later resurrected his career by getting clean and winning the 2010 district attorney election in Del Norte on a “death to meth” campaign. Alexander denied the charges and said he was targeted because of his former drug use.
► In February, the California State Bar filed disciplinary charges against former Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich for allegedly suppressing evidence and allowing false testimony in a death-penalty case he tried as an assistant district attorney in 1986. A federal judge last year overturned the conviction in that case, citing prosecutorial misconduct. Trutanich has denied all the bar’s charges.
► For almost two years after his re-election defeat in 2014, former Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach faced legal questions over his office’s participation in a massive wiretapping program that USA Today found was one of the largest in the nation. In October 2016, a Riverside County judge upheld the legality of the eavesdropping.
Zellerbach also ran into trouble stemming from his 2014 re-election campaign. In January 2015 he pleaded guilty to a charge of misdemeanor vandalism for damaging one of his opponent’s campaign signs. Zellerbach also received a public reproval and one year of professional probation from the State Bar for his sign attack.
