The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 32, Ed. 1 Tuesday, October 26, 1976 Page: 2 of 6
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PAGE 2-THE NORTH TEXAS DAILY
Tuesday, October 26, 1976
Campaign^ '76 — On the Issues
County Attorney Race
JERRY COBB
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a series of inter-
views with some nominees who will be listed on county
ballots. Democrat Jerry Cobb and Republican Alan
Levy are contenders for county attorney. Excerpts of
their interviews follow.
DAILY: What one position do you hold that makes
you appealing to college voters?
COBB: Of course, I think you have to treat the col-
lege students the same as you do anyone else. I think
you need to be impartial to them. I don't think you
can, in this office, give anybody favors, whether you're
talking about students or Blacks or whatever. I do say
that I feel like 1 could be fair to the college students,
and will be so, and treat them like every other citizen
of this county.
LEVY: I think probably the most important one is my
attitude towards the criminal justice system. And that
very simply is that I don't have any problem or qualm
about applying the law to anybody. Of course, the
past history of this county is that frequently there is a
dual standard of justice both in regard to minorities
and regard to the poor. They generally receive harsh
treatment and the people that receive the better treat-
ment are the businessmen and the people who alleged-
ly have influence in the community. So I think my at-
titude on that subject ought to be appealing to
anyone. . .other than the White merchants.
DAILY: What type of crime would receive top
priority in your prosecution?
COBB: I think any time in this type office, you have
to give priority to crimes of violence, crimes where
people are hurt, things of that nature, robberies,, ag-
gravated robberies, murders, rapes, things like that, as
opposed to what you may call "victimless" crimes.
Unfortunately, as county attorney 1 don't think you
have the right to pick and choose which laws you en-
force. i think you have to enforce them all. Obviously,
when you start talking about enforcement and you
start talking about priorities, you have to decide in
your own mind what you feel like is the most impor-
tant crime and what you think the community wants to
be enforced. I think one of the ways of doing this is to
try a few cases of every kind and see what the com-
munity wants.
LEVY: Murder, rape, robbery, burglary, particular-
ly of habitation or residence. Those are the areas that
most interest me. And the various types of assault like
aggravated assault more or less is related to murder. I
am talking about crimes against persons. If you were
going to have a classification, that would be it.
DAILY: What type of sentences will you seek for the
possession of marijuana cases?
COBB: I am not going to make any comments
about what my personal feelings are toward mari-
juana. It is against the law, and if the legislature
changes the law, that's up to the legislature. It is my
job to enforce the law. I am not going to say anything
that somebody down the line is going to come back to
me, if I don't recommend a probated sentence, and
say, "Look, you said out at The North Texas Daily,
on whatever day it is, that you were going to recom-
An Editorial
Vote Levy
"Fanatics."
That's what Alan Levy, GOP county attorney
nominee, labels most politicians.
Levy does not fit this category. Brash and out-
spoken, he is his own man, run by no machine. He
takes the same view of any issue regardless of the
audience.
That's the focus of Levy's campaign—the is-
sues. Unlike his opponent Jerry Cobb, who hides
behind the statement, "That's the law, I'll enforce
it," Levy lets his beliefs be known.
Levy will be an initiator, a leader. While Cobb
says he will wait and let the legislature act on laws
concerning crimes and punishment, Levy says he
will be at legislators' doors with alternative ideas.
Levy gives this definition of the role of a county
attorney: "If he is not happy with the law, he
ought to tell the people about it and go down to
the legislature and do something about it. That's
part of his job, the general function of his office—
to be a leader in the community of law en-
forcement."
Levy has the basic qualifications for the job. He
has prosecuted misdemeanor, felony and juvenile
eases. He feels that crimes against the person
should be the top priority of the county attorney's
office and should be dealt with first over vic-
timless crimes.
With his aggressive view of the county at-
torney's role, Levy will bring a new spirit to the
Denton County office.
Levy thinks he'll probably lose. Vote for him
and prove him wrong.
—THE STAFF
mend probated sentences in marijuana cases." I am
not going to do that. I am not saying that that's not
what I am going to recommend but I'm not going to
make any statements about what I will do or will not
do. It is a crime and it is against the law and as long as
it is against the law it is my duty to enforce the law.
Now what the sentences are, again you go back to
what I was telling you awhile ago. You start talking
about making recommendations, it's sentencing.
My idea of how you determine what to recommend
is, if there is a problem, let some people in Denton
County have a say-so, through a jury trial, about what
they want to happen to that individual for whatever
the crime is. And if you try five marijuana cases, or six
marijuana cases, in a county court-of-law and
everyone of those defendants is given probation, then
that would indicate to me that the county has shown it
is willing to go along with probation. I don't think you
can pick and choose which laws you want to enforce
because you don't agree with some of them. They are
all there, and they are all to be enforced.
LEVY: Of course I sent you a press release which I
sent after I sent to the other most conservative Denton
papers so that 1 could avoid any problem of just
sending one press release to this paper and one to
another. I told the medical society and the other peo-
ple the same thing. My position is clear, as long as that
law remains on the books I have got to enforce it with
reasonable diligence. I am not going to make it the
emphasis of my office. If a case is brought in I will try
to dispose of it properly. It probably be more or less
how its done now.
My personal position and my public statement is
will probably never run for anything again. I ran
because I figured I can do this job. I like pro:ecutinp
which is probably some flaw in my character. I don't
run for public office as a habit. He's run for city coun-
cil, for mayor and now he's all of a sudden going to be
a prosecutor. The difference is that he will probably
win, number one; and number two, he is going to win
without ever addressing himself to a single issue. And
the people of this county apparently don't care.
My view is that in the political process, and that's
what's the problem of county government, is that the
people that get into office become so habituated with
politics that they cannot withdraw. So that every deci-
sion thev make in every one of those offices is. . .the
first thing they ask themselves is, Am 1 going to make
anybody mad or Is this going to help me get reelected
or What other openings up the line are there in
Washington or Calcutta or wherever they are planning
on going.
And fairly soon you find people that are not making
any decisions at all unless absolutely compelled by cir-
cumstances. . .and people who tell people not what the
truth is but what they think those people want to hear.
So that they'll go down to some Kiwanis Club or
something and talk about hot checks. Then they'll go
to the college and they'll talk about marijuana. Then
they'll go over to the American Legion and talk about
drug addiction. They address themselves to an
audience. And there is no very good (news) medium in
this county so that you can go from audience to
audience and give a different emphasis to each
audience. So that you are all things to all people. By
pandering that prejudice, they really don't do
anything to improve the system, they just reinforce
cu:ct s&
KENNETH GEORGE
Coupty Attorney
that if, when the next session of the legislature meets
(for whatever it's worth), I will appear before the com-
mission. Its headed by Craig Washington and I will
recommend that they eliminate the penalties for mis-
demeanor possession of marijuana.
And my definition of a small amount, . .1 would say
somewhere between about eight ounces to 12 ounces is
clearly just a personal use amount. And I am not in-
terested in making cases on those, I think that it is a
waste of my time and the police's time and I don't
want to run them through the courts and I don't want
to make the police take them over to the jail. It'sjust a
waste of time. That's the position I've taken and that's
what I figure is right.
DAILY: I guess the main thing we're trying to get
across to the voters is, what sets you apart from your op-
ponent?
COBB: I think probably my particular position in
the community and the length of time I've been here,
and because I'm probably more familiar with what so-
called citizens of Denton think and want in a county
attorney's office. I've been here for eight years and I
grew up here, so I've been here for a lot longer than
eight years. I've been practicing law for eight years.
I've heard the complaints from the police officers and
from the citizens out on the street concerning the law
enforcement. I feel like I'm just closer to what I con-
sider just an ordinary citizen than my opponent. I feel
1 have a closer touch on what 1 think the ordinary
citizens in Denton County, not any special interest
group but just the ordinary citizen, wants in the way of
law enforcement. I think that's a result from having
grown up here.
I graduated from this school and lived in this area
and worked at the drug store and everything else I did
while growing up. 1 feel like probably that's why I'm
better qualified than my opponent. I have a lot of
respect for Alan and I think he's a good lawyer. I'd tell
him that, I'd tell anyone that. I think he is a good
lawyer. I don't think he's any better lawyer than 1 am
and I think he'd tell you the same thing. We don't
always agree, we don't have the sa..ie philosophies
about a lot of things, but that's neither here nor there
either. 1 don't agree with everybody and neither would
you. I think I'm closer to the people of Denton
County and I think that's what you're talking about.
LEVY: Well, I think this is what separates me. I
have never run for anything, and after this election I
Photo by PAUL RAINWATER
people's views of it, which are frequently erroneous.
DAILY: You say you differ in philosophy in some
areas. In what areas?
COBB: In some areas, Alan is so-called more liberal
than I am, and in other areas I'm more liberal than he
is. It's my understanding that he's in favor of gun con-
trol. I'm not in favor of gun control. It's things like
this. Philosophical ideas that don't really have
anything to do with how you handle the office.
I think both of us would be dedicated to doing the
duties of the office. When you start talking about
theoretical things, 1 disagree with him about some
things, he disagrees with me, but then I disagree with
other people.
How you handle things or what your particular
philosophy is doesn't really have any effect on what
you do in this office. You know, really and truly, when
you talk about this office, and there's been some talk
about a debate and things of this nature, but what do
you debate?
You have to look at what is the function of this of-
fice. The function of this office is to prosecute all of
the criminal cases that are brought to it. He believes in
that and 1 believe in that. I believe it should be done
fairly and impartially and he believes it should be done
fairly and impartially. And so what do you talk about?
Well, you can get into a lot of technical questions
about how you do this or how you do that, and can he
present this evidence better than I can or I can present
this evidence better than he can. But those are things
that only lawyers and judges would understand if we
got into a discussion about it. They probably wouldn't
know what we were talking about, not in every in-
stance, but in a lot of instances.
Basically what do you say? I want to be prosecutor,
I'll try as many cases as I can. I think it ought to be
done in a fair and impartial manner and that's basical-
ly what he's going to say. There's not anything else to
say because that's the nature of this office. We have
some control, but we don't have a lot of control over
what's brought into the office. A police officer brings
a complaint in there and puts it on my desk and says
we want this prosecuted and all we can say is, "Now
look, we can prosecute this or we can't prosecute this.
The reason we can't prosecute is because you didn't do
this, this and this, and the case is no good because we
can't get the proper evidence."
I think that's one aspect of the county attorney's of-
fice, but you can't set up there, at least on your own, at
ALAN LEVY
least I don't think you can, which case you want to
prosecute and which you don't want to prosecute just
based solely on that you just don't want to do it.
That's not your function and I think Alan would tell
you the same thing.
When you get into a race like this, it's not like
you're going to the legislature and we're going to vote
to legalize marijuana tomorrow or we're going to vote
not to legalize it tommorrow, or we're going to vote to
cut off the money that goes to North Texas or we're
going to vote to increase the money that goes to North
Texas. Those are issues based on what your
philosophy is but that's not what this job is.
LEVY: Well, 1 am not saying that he has not been
candid. The reason that he has not addressed any is-
sues is that nobody's asked him. That's the literal
truth. If you count up the number of candidate's
forums and the number of requests we get from news-
papers, you could put them on one hand. I don't
think that he is avoiding the issues, he just doesn't
answer because he doesn't have to.
As far as the issues, I think that there are a lot of is-
sues. The first issue is what kind of staff this county
wants. It's a county that's gone from a rural to a
semisuburban status and it will be a suburban county.
And the first question is, "Is this present governmen-
tal structure adequate to our needs? And the answer to
that question is, "Not with the personel that are in of-
fice."
First of all, when you pay an assistant prosecutor
and his top salary is $14,000 and that same man can go
to Dallas and be the third man in a misdemeanor
chair, which means all that he does is carry the file into
the courtroom while the other two prosecutors handle
it. They get $13,500 when your top pay is roughly
equal with their bottom pay, you're not competitive.
You're average assistant won't stay more than a year
in Denton County. In the practice of law, older
lawyers are better than younger lawyers, that's a fact
of life, unless they get too old they aren't quite as
good. The more years a lawyer has, generally the bet-
ter he is, the more acclimated he is to the court struc-
ture. Actually the people in this county are not as well
represented as the defendent. A good prosecutor
should win a minimum of 80 per cent of his cases—
that's the minimum. So that's the first question. We
need to address the salary structure and that's not go-
ing to be very popular because people in this county
are cheap as hell. They don't pay for anything.
And the second question is on this whole issue of
leadership. The county attorney or the district at-
torney, whatever his nomenclature is in the various
counties, ought to be the leader. He sets the policy.
And all of this business that has been going on for
years about the police are unhappy about this and the
police are unhappy about that. . .or they want this
case prosecuted or they want this assistant to do that.
They don't run that office, the district attorney runs it.
And the district judges don't run it. They shouldn't
be setting the docket. The district attorney ought to be
more familiar with the cases than the judge. And he
ought to be setting the docket, with murder, rape and
robbery—the cases that he wants tried, with habitual
criminals on top. Try those people first and go on.
And if the people don't like it, then he ought to take
the responsibility instead of hiding around saying,
"That is not my job, the grand jury is not my job. The
police are unhappy, we'll do whatever they want us to
do." He's responsible to the public for law enforce-
ment. He's the chief law enforcement officer.
Third question is on the specific kinds of crime.
Some want to know about capital punishment, some
want to know about marijuana whatever it is, the dis-
trict attorney candidate needs to make his views
known. If he is in office, he needs to make his views
known and try to seek corrections in the laws that are
deficient. If he is not happy with the law, he ought to
tell people about it and go down to the legislature and
do something about it. That's part of the general func-
tion of his office. He's not only sit in the courtroom
and prosecute cases, which is the first thing, but to be
a leader in the community of law enforcement and
take positions that may or may not be popular, so that
people can understand what the issues are. How are
they ever going to know if the people that are sup-
posed to know are scared to tell them?
The North Texas Daily
North Texas Slate University
Denton. Texas
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TERRY PAIR, editor
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Pair, Terry. The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 32, Ed. 1 Tuesday, October 26, 1976, newspaper, October 26, 1976; Denton, TX. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth332354/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.