> But in my opinion the biggest single factor is that the DA in question is an investor in the private jail to which he sends people.
If this is true, it's a serious breach of legal ethics. It might be worth someone's while to get some reputable lawyers in Portland interested in the issue with an eye towards filing a complaint with the Oregon bar.
I'm not going to say that shady things don't happen in prosecutor's offices, but the ones I've seen tend to be political (trying hard to nail someone for a high-profile case because it would look bad to come up empty handed). State bars don't like to second guess discretionary authority in situations like that. Clear-cut conflicts of interests like this one, on the other hand, are the kind of thing state bars like to make examples out of, because they are easy to verify.
If this is true, it's a serious breach of legal ethics. It might be worth someone's while to get some reputable lawyers in Portland interested in the issue with an eye towards filing a complaint with the Oregon bar.
I'm not going to say that shady things don't happen in prosecutor's offices, but the ones I've seen tend to be political (trying hard to nail someone for a high-profile case because it would look bad to come up empty handed). State bars don't like to second guess discretionary authority in situations like that. Clear-cut conflicts of interests like this one, on the other hand, are the kind of thing state bars like to make examples out of, because they are easy to verify.