SBLC Hires Attorney with Legal Troubles

Santa Clara County Prosecutor Ben Field announced yesterday that he would be leaving the District Attorney’s Office to work for the South Bay Labor Council. The announcement comes after a State Bar judge issued a harshly worded report recommending that Field be suspended for four years for ethical misconduct. Charges included withholding evidence from defense attorneys and disobeying a judge’s orders.

When asked about hiring Field, former San Jose Councilwoman Cindy Chavez, now the CEO of the SBLC, explained that his new position will not require Field to perform any legal work. Instead, he will be managing a team of employees and helping with the launch of several new programs, including a health care plan for small businesses. According to a report in today’s Mercury News, Field vowed to fight the disciplinary action, “but legal experts said it is unlikely Field would resign his relatively lucrative job as a veteran prosecutor if he believed he could prevail in an appeals process that ultimately will be decided by the California Supreme Court.”

Field will take over as chief of staff for the Labor Council and its nonprofit arm, Working Partnerships.

12 Comments

  1. More importantly, the recent naming of a new head of Working Partnerships closes another loop on the clues of who is SJR.

    Preminger has a new boss and perhaps as SJR does this during staff changes, perhaps SJR is Steve Preminger.

  2. Good Job SBLC

    The CA bar is way off base with so many current issues.  Changes are taking place in the bar leadership as it should.  Thank you Ben for your service and hard work keeping us safe.  Good luck in your new job.

  3. Let’s give SBLC a break, they are fighting for working families and doing a great job. . Fields would be a great addition to the organization.

  4. Jeremy, the SBLC will get a break when they stop paying dirtmaster Phil Bump to slime community members and publish maps to people’s homes. Their unconscionable attacks on individuals would make Richard Nixon proud. Cindy, Bob and Phaedra are fully aware of this activity, and they financially support the people who keep this stuff on the web. (I wonder if the progressive foundations and hard-working tradespeople who fund SBLC/Working Partnerships—and the idealistic progressives who support them—know that they are spending resources anonymously, cowardly engaging in disgraceful Karl Rove-like behavior against fellow Democrats?) Paying bloggers to attack people anonymously is cowardice and has no place in a community like San Jose. This is organized political propaganda. SBLC and Cindy Chavez have no claim to moral or political legitimacy as long as they continue their personal attack politics. Remember what they did to Tony West, one of the finest people ever to run for office in the South Bay? SBLC’s leaders are pariahs, and history will view their legacy as the low point in San Jose’s political history.

  5. Jeremy,

    Look at the record and you’ll see that Labor backed candidates prevail about half the time.  The problem is they endorse lots of hacks who come up through the movement.

    C

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