People standing above the Loma Rica project on Sutton Way watched smoke plume from a vegetation fire that broke out around 10:30 a.m. Monday, just west of the intersection of Brunswick and Idaho Maryland roads.
Bystanders pulled over on Sutton Way to witness the response to the Brunswick Fire. Tanker 88 dropped pink fire retardant on the scene as a Cal Fire bulldozer cut fire lines on the ground.
Rebecca O’Neil
Over 80 different authorities from various agencies – the Grass Valley/Nevada City Fire Department, California Highway Patrol, Grass Valley Police Department and Nevada County Sheriff’s Office responded to the fire, which burned a total of 3.3 acres.
Photo: Elias Funez
For Jesse Wilson, prosecution is not simply an impersonal, bureaucratic service performed on behalf of the state.
Prosecutors, he said, have a duty and a moral obligation to protect crime victims, and as Nevada County’s new district attorney, he wants to make it clear that, first and foremost, he’s taken the job to fight for victims in this community.
“My number one goal is the protection of the public and holding those accountable who compromise that goal … I’m someone who approaches this position from a very victim-centric approach, which I think is the proper way to to look at prosecution,” Wilson said in his first sit-down interview with The Union.
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Deputy District Attorney Casey Ayer has seen the pattern too many times.
In her four-plus years serving as a Nevada County prosecutor, Ayer has prosecuted probably hundreds of domestic violence cases as head of the office’s family violence unit. But in far more cases than she would like, Ayer said that she has had to drop charges against accused abusers most often because of a lack of cooperation by the victim.
“Victims’ stories change because their hearts change, and sometimes that ends up sinking the case entirely,” Ayer said. “Oftentimes, even when we believe we have a strong case to start with, it doesn’t end up a strong case.”