District Attorney Participation
This letter serves as an addendum to Enforcement Letter 2018-10 (ENF 18-10), issued on June 14, 2018. When there is an incident meeting the priority criteria outlined in the Cooperative Agreement between the Department of Pesticide Regulation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region IX, and the California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association (hereafter priority episode), you are required to:
- Offer the opportunity to your District Attorney, City Attorney, or Circuit Prosecutor (hereafter DA) to participate in the priority episode investigation and,
- Notify the DA on completion of the investigation and provide the DA the opportunity to accept the case for possible civil or criminal prosecution. (See Cal. Code of Regs., tit. 3, § 6128(e).)
Therefore, for every priority episode, the enforcement response regulations require you to offer the opportunity to the DA to accept the case for possible civil or criminal prosecution. This must be done regardless of whether the DA participated in the investigation, or was previously given the opportunity to do so and declined.
ENF 18-10 recommended appropriate timing for notifying the DA and provided sample templates to facilitate and encourage communication and cooperation between the County Agricultural Commissioner and DA in pursuing an appropriate enforcement response. ENF 18-10 and its attachments are included with this letter.
If you have any questions, contact the Enforcement Branch Liaison assigned to your county.
Sincerely,