Today's Public Official Misfit: Deputy DA Anu Chopra of Yuba City, CA 

The state of California presented Anu Chopra with a law license in 2005 after she graduated from California Northern School of Law in Chico, California.

California Northern is an unaccredited law school that is dedicated to accepting losers that couldn’t gain acceptance at mainstream schools such as UCLA, USC or UC Davis.

Anu’s misconduct took place while he was employed as a Sutter County Deputy District Attorney in Yuba City, California.

In one matter, Anu was assigned to prosecute a case involving Javier Jimenez who was charged with child molestation. Jimenez was later found guilty after a jury trial. Jimenez’s defense attorney Craig Leri has filed a motion in the Sutter County Superior Court for a new trial. In his motion, Mr. Leri argues that Anu failed to provide exculpatory evidence (tending to prove innocence) and that he knowingly allowed a witness to commit perjury. He also charged Anu with introducing evidence at the trial that the trial judge had deemed to be inadmissible.

In an interview with reporter Monica Vaughn of the Appeal Democrat newspaper, Mr. Leri said he’s never filed a motion like this in his 41 years as an attorney. Obviously, he never had to deal with an unethical prosecutor like Anu.

As of mid-May 2016, Anu is on administrative while her actions are being investigated in another case.

The present accusations against her relate to reports and testimony about child pornography that Anu led jurors to believe belonged to Mr. Jimenez. The images were found on a computer that Jimenez allegedly used.

During the trial gross images were show to jurors during opening statements by Anu. However, Anu’s forensic expert testified that the images were downloaded two years before Mr. Jimenez had the computer. The expert’s information was provided to Anu but was never given to Mr. Leri. The expert also debunked the testimony of the victim’s mother that Mr. Jimenez downloaded pornography on her computer when he said no evidence existed to support her claim.

All that remains now is to see if the trial judge orders that Mr. Jimenez receive a new trial. In addition, if the judge does so he should find Anu in contempt of court and sanction her accordingly. After that, the judge is duty-bound to report her misconduct to the State Bar. 

As we speak (ca. May 2016), Anu has been placed on administrative leave by the Sutter County District Attorney’s Office.