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Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, Faith Johnson rematch for top prosecutor

Staff, Dallas Morning News | Published on 11/2/2022

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot ran for the office in 2018 with plans to make the criminal justice system more fair. He aimed to address disparities in arrests and prosecutions for people of color, who live in poverty or struggle with mental illness.

He instituted two policies that have become hallmarks of his term: He stopped prosecution of misdemeanor thefts  — if they were for essential items, like food and diapers — and misdemeanor amounts of marijuana for personal use.

Creuzot, a Democrat, is running for reelection this November to continue what he started.

Faith Johnson, a Republican who preceded him in the office, is running to undo his policies. She says she can reduce disproportionate outcomes without ignoring parts of state law.

Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Johnson — the county’s first Black female district attorney — to the role in December 2016 after the elected DA, Susan Hawk, resigned because of health problems. Abbott endorsed Johnson last month.

When Johnson and Creuzot faced off in 2018, Creuzot won 60% of the vote. Both were prosecutors and then longtime state district judges in Dallas County. They worked in private practice after leaving the bench.

Johnson, 71, said she stands a chance of defeating Creuzot this time because, she says, police and business owners don’t like his policies.

Creuzot, 65, said he gets along well with police chiefs in Dallas County. He pointed to a joint program with Dallas and Garland police departments that uses a focused deterrence strategy to predict people who are likely to commit violence and try to intervene. Since he’s been DA, he said, prosecutors have had about a 94% conviction rate with about 750 murder cases that came to the office.

Creuzot recently said he will consider rolling back his theft policy if reelected because those types of crimes are going down and, he says, the policy has been negatively misconstrued.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/inside-politics/texas-politics/democratic-candidate-dallas-county-district-attorney-john-creuzot/287-abfe50a1-ccc6-4fe3-93f0-c3ced22d36b8

“My candidacy is built on a continuation of what we started,” Creuzot said during a forum Friday hosted by the League of Women Voters of Dallas and the North Dallas Chamber.

“When I ran for this office back in 2018, I had a very specific platform of criminal-justice reform, and it was based on ideas and thoughts of how can we make the system fairer to people of color and poor people and the homeless and the mentally ill and take that time that we have saved with those efforts and combine them with the efforts of our cities … and focus on violent crime,” said Creuzot, who is also Black.

Johnson said she was already addressing disparate outcomes when she was DA. She started the county’s annual Expunction Expo, which has allowed hundreds of people to clear their criminal records in certain cases without needing to hire a lawyer and pay court fees. Creuzot has continued the program.

Expunctions may be granted for people who were arrested but not charged, or if a criminal charge was dismissed or a person was acquitted, pardoned or completed deferred adjudication probation. Without an expunction, the criminal accusation can still appear when a person applies for a job or tries to purchase a house.

Johnson also created satellite DA offices to reach people where they live and save them trips to the downtown-area courthouse in Dallas when possible.

Johnson said she believes in second chances — even a third, fourth or fifth for some people — but she won’t have a blanket policy like Creuzot.

“It’s not always you just give somebody a second chance,” Johnson said in an interview. “But you got to also understand when you need to be able to say no, enough is enough, and we got to do this for the safety and security of the community.”

Johnson said she’s running because she loves people.

She often tells a story from her childhood in Atlanta to illustrate her love of people. Johnson is the youngest of 13 kids and grew up poor, but her mother had saved up $25 to buy her a high school graduation gift.

Johnson told her mom she didn’t want material things. She wanted a hundred friends.

“This whole thought about wanting to do something for people, wanting to make a difference, wanting to impact lives, make it better, that’s who I am,” Johnson said.

Johnson came to Texas from Georgia to attend Texas Southern University in Houston.

Creuzot and Johnson were hired by the late Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade in the 1980s. Creuzot has said Wade hired people of color and women at a time when most law firms in Dallas were not doing so

Creuzot and Johnson also both served as felony court judges. Johnson was a judge just over 17 years, and Creuzot was on the bench more than 21 years, according to their bios.

Creuzot came to Texas in 1966 from Louisiana after his father moved to Houston for work. He was drawn to North Texas for college.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas and his law degree from Southern Methodist University.

Creuzot gained recognition as a judge for establishing one of the state’s first drug courts, which he has said helped reduce prison populations.

As district attorney, he spearheaded the Dallas County Deflection Center, an alternative to jail where police can take people who struggle with mental health for low-level crimes such as criminal trespass.

A report by SMU’s Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center concluded Creuzot’s marijuana policy helped drive down arrests and influenced police departments to stop arresting for low-level, personal marijuana use.
https://www.smu.edu/Law/Centers-and-Initiatives/Deason-Center/Issues/Prosecutorial-Discretion

“I am a person of ideas, not fear. I am a person who is data-driven,” Creuzot said. “When I put these programs together, they’re designed to work. We measure them and they all have reductions in recidivism and cost benefit analysis savings.”

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