Gressett, 52, is accused by a prosecutor in another county. The 30-year-old woman says that she agreed to sleep with Gresset but objected to his demands which, among other things, included a gun put to her head and handcuffs in May 2008.
Gressett was fired after the allegations in July, but insists that these were playful devices and that his political opponents are using the case against him. His lawyers are also attacking the alleged victim as having a troubled history.
What is interesting in the case is that the defense has won a major victory in getting the court to rule that the woman could be questioned in open court in a preliminary hearing. The prosecutors then circumvented the preliminary hearing by going to a grand jury instead — a move denounced by the defense as trying to protect the witness from being confronted on her own history.
What is also interesting is the protection of the woman’s name. There has long been a controversy over why a defendant’s name is made public but not his accuser in a rape case. Some have argued that either both names or neither name should be withheld. Here the alleged victim is a prosecutor who is being protected from being publicly named while the former prosecutor has been named.
If convicted, Gressett may regret one of his chief campaign positions:
Plea-bargaining in this area must be curtailed as these types of crimes present the greatest danger to the safety and well being of our citizens.
I plan to initiate a “real” No Plea-Bargaining Policy, including maximum prosecution of murder, rape, armed robbery and other violent felonies. In order to monitor and ensure the execution of this Policy, I plan to implement my “Justice System Accountability Program” (JSAP) whereby the decisions being made within Contra Costa County’s Prosecutorial and Judicial systems will be publicly accessible via the Internet.
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