Alex Byers – Assistant District Attorney, Santa Cruz County
Wednesday, January 12, 7:30 p.m.
Placement of SVP in Bonny Doon: What Next?
Please join the RBDA at the January Annual Public Meeting for a discussion with Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Alex Byers about the County’s attempt to overturn the decision of Superior Court Judge Syda Cogliati to place convicted serial rapist Michael Cheek in Bonny Doon. As this Highlander goes to press, we do not know the outcome of the County’s appeal. But we maintain that because of the remoteness of Bonny Doon, the lack of communication infrastructure and services, the slowness of law enforcement response, this is never an appropriate place for violent criminals. Please come learn about the way other communities have organized to prevent placement and what the district attorney’s office can do to prevent more placements in the future.
Alex Byers: Originally from San Diego I joined the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office in 2008. Since that time, I have handled a variety of cases including homicides, gang violence, and general misdemeanor and general felony case loads. Currently, I am assigned to both the Vehicular Homicide Unit, which includes the investigation and prosecution of vehicle code offenses that have resulted in death or serious bodily injury and the Mental Health Unit which includes cases involving the criminally insane, mentally disordered offenders, developmentally disabled offenders, and sexually violent predators. I am also the District Attorney’s representative to the Santa Cruz County Behavioral Health Court, a collaborative review court focusing on mentally ill offenders, and Reentry Court, another collaborative court tasked with assisting parolees reintegrate into society.
Prior to the District Attorney’s Office, I was employed as a Deputy Public Defender for the County of Kern where I defended indigent defendants. I have a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara (1997) and a Juris Doctorate from the Santa Clara University (2001). I am a resident of Santa Cruz County and have lived here for over a decade with my family in Aptos.
Details on How to Participate in the Virtual Public Meeting
Zoom (zoom.us) is a video conferencing platform that is free to use through either a web browser or application, and audio participation is possible through a dial-up connection on your phone. We selected this platform based on its widespread use and ease of accessibility. For this meeting, we will be utilizing all the available security features, including password-protection and waiting rooms managed by the host.
Access and participation in this meeting:
•Send your e-mail address to meetings@rbda.us to receive the meeting credentials and password. Your email will not be used for any other communication and will not be shared.
•Call into the meeting between 7:10 and 7:20, so that we can begin at 7:30.
