Child abuse prosecutor backs Kunzweiler, chides McCarty for lies

Amy Dickens is a prosecutor now, working in the Crimes Against Children unit, but many years ago she was our kids' babysitter and part of our church family. Dickens received the Pillar of Hope award last fall from the Child Advocacy Network for her work prosecuting cases involving child abuse. She has some words about tomorrow's election for Tulsa County District Attorney that are worth your attention.

Tomorrow is the day to vote for Steve Kunzweiler to remain the Tulsa County DA.

Colleen McCarty has lied about a lot of things during her campaign but one particular lie so offends me, both personally and professionally, that I feel I have to address it.

Anyone who claims that our office does not prosecute cases involving sexual abuse of children under age 12 is LYING. I've spent seven years prosecuting those crimes.

Someone who has never tried a single case may have the naive luxury of believing that, to quote her directly, "you would be hard pressed to find 12 people in Tulsa county who would NOT convict a child molester and sentence them to 25 years." If only that were true.

The reality is this: IT IS HARD to secure convictions in those cases. It is hard to watch attorneys deliberately confuse small children, twist their words, make them cry, then tell a jury the reason they "can't keep their story straight" is that they are lying. It is hard to explain to a jury why so many times children don't disclose right away, or how frustratingly quickly DNA evidence disappears. It is hard to get jurors to understand that someone who abuses a child for a period of months deserves that 25 year minimum just as much as someone who abuses a child for a period of years. And it is hard to get jurors to tune out the little but loud "reform groups" who work tirelessly to shift society's focus to criminals who want to paint themselves as victims rather than keeping the focus on the actual victims - groups like those McCarty has spent her entire career working for, advocating for criminals.

That doesn't mean we don't file those cases. We do. And we secure convictions in a lot of them because experienced prosecutors handle them. But anyone who thinks that prosecutors can just snap our fingers and get a jury to convict every single time because we say so is frighteningly naive. It simply does not work that way, which McCarty doesn't understand because she's never actually done this job. And claiming that we do not prosecute those cases because the 25 year minimum makes them too hard is an outright lie.

When you're a prosecutor you don't get to lie. You don't get to spin, or twist people's words, or provide incomplete context, or actively work to deceive people to get them on your side. Every single thing Colleen McCarty is doing in her campaign is the very opposite of what it means to be a prosecutor.

On June 16th vote Steve Kunzweiler for DA.

Well said, Amy. Steve Kunzweiler has put together and kept together a great team at the Tulsa County DA's office, despite budget restrictions and the heartbreak of working with victims. Amy is one of several ADAs that our family got to know before their time working at the DAs office, so we have a good sense of the kind of dedicated, hardworking, and intelligent attorneys that Kunzweiler has recruited and retained. None of the attorneys I know want to see Kunzweiler replaced.

(Dickens mentioned separately that, although the legislature recently reduced the minimum sentence from 25 to 10 years, crimes that were committed prior to the change must still be tried under the previous sentencing minimums.)

Here are a few of my thoughts as we reach the end of this campaign: