C. DAVID EYSTER COURTHOUSE P.O. Box 1000 PAUL D. SEQUEIRA Ukiah, CA 95482 ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY COAST OFFICE MIKE GENIELLA 700 S. Franklin St. PUBLIC INFORMATION Ft. Bragg, CA 95437 707-391-1019 OFFICE OF THE [email protected] DISTRICT ATTORNEY

COUNTY OF MENDOCINO

PRESS RELEASE

Oct. 18, 2011

STAFF CHANGES UNDER WAY IN DA’S OFFICE

Mendocino District Attorney David Eyster announced today that staffing changes are under way in the DA’s Office.

Local Steve Jackson is leaving Eyster’s office, and moving his family to Washington State where he has taken a position with the Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Jackson’s last day in the Ukiah office is today, Tuesday, October 18, 2011.

Jackson graduated from the University of San Francisco’s School of Law in 2000 and passed the State Bar in 2001. Jackson was hired by the Mendocino County Public Defender’s Office in 2001 and in that role directed the defense of local indigents charged with criminal offenses. Jackson was hired by former DA Meredith Lintott in July 2007, and served for the last four years as a local prosecutor handling a variety of assignments, including sexual assaults, , and appeals work.

District Attorney Eyster has supervised the work of Jackson since Eyster took office in January 2011. Eyster said today of Jackson, “Steve is a good worker who always kept in mind that public safety must be job one for any prosecutor. On behalf of everybody in the office, I wish Steve and his family Godspeed in their new endeavors in the Pacific Northwest.”

Jackson is the second attorney to leave the DA’s Office during the last few months. Deputy District Attorney Grant Hughes recently left to accept employment with his uncle’s Silicon Valley law firm.

“Grant was responsible for all vehicle-related cases and he did so with aplomb,” said Eyster. “The experience Grant developed on the job in the courtrooms of Mendocino County will serve his private clients well at the new law firm.”

While Eyster acknowledged that it is difficult in the short-term when an office loses familiar with the local legal system and the way we do business in Mendocino County, Eyster candidly says he anticipates there may be more turnovers in the months to come that are typical of small, rural offices.

“Assistant DA Paul Sequeira and I have interviewed some excellent people and we remain confident that our hiring strategies will help bolster the DA’s Office, while paying public safety dividends for the citizens of Mendocino County in the long-term,” said Eyster.