State Attorney District 12: Lisa Chittaro

Name: Lisa Chittaro

Age: 53

Family: Two sons, ages 12 and 14. Two German shepherds.

Bio: Graduated from St. Thomas Law School in 2000. I was a prosecutor throughout my legal career until I resigned in good standing in June 2017. I’m currently a sole practitioner. 

Why are you running for office?

Restore/promote/rebuild public trust in government.

1. Objectivity: Apply the laws equally and appropriate based solely on the evidence and applicable law.
2. Transparency: The state attorney should be visible in the community, accessible to the people and engaged with the community in all areas.
3. Accountability: The state attorney should be visible, accessible to the public, be hands on and proactive.

What are three priorities you hope to accomplish, if elected?

1. Create an investigative division that would assist and supplement law enforcement efforts. The division would investigate issues of great public concern such as public corruption;
2. Serve the people of this community with integrity by having strict policy that formal criminal charges are only initiated based on the admissible evidence to the applicable law. Hold the guilty accountable and safeguard the innocent; and
3. Promote fiscal responsibility and eliminate wasteful spending. Eliminate any perception of favoritism, leniency, strong arm justice or cash register justice.

Every case and circumstances are different. And this is probably too broad, but in general, what is your philosophy on sentencing for misdemeanors and felonies?

As the Minister of Justice, the State Attorney's Office should have a cohesive policy that holds the guilty accountable in appropriation to the unique circumstances of each case and the severity of the crime charged.

What is your view of how to sentence people convicted of multiple drug-use crimes?

The role of the state attorney is to seek justice. Drug addiction-related crimes should include a rehabilitation component that provides incentives for recovery and deter reoffending.

If money were no object, and you were in charge of the Legislature, what frustrations or issues would you address and change: 1) to improve the operations of the state attorney’s office; and 2) that would markedly improve the state justice system?

Provide higher salaries based on merit, skills and experience to compete with private practice higher compensation and hire more prosecutors to lower the caseload of individual prosecutors. This would improve the efficiency and quality of processing cases through the criminal justice system.

Sheriff Tom Knight has been a leader and innovator with treatment programs for drug offenders instead of housing them in jail. How would you say they are working, and, again, if you had the magic wand, what would you do to improve them?

Yes the programs are working. An improvement would be to expand and make quality and comprehensive treatment programs available to everyone based on the individual’s unique requirements for the highest possible success to break the addiction cycle.

What, in your opinion, is the right relationship and balance between the State Attorney’s office and local law enforcement agencies? How would you grade the state attorney’s relationship with local law enforcement agencies? What can be improved?

I would rate it as a C. The State Attorney’s Office relies on law enforcement for good, complete and thorough investigations to make the best decision, based on the evidence whether to formal pursue criminal charges. The State Attorney’s Office and law enforcement are two separate and independent agencies that rely on good communication and cooperation. It can be improved by providing proactive and regular roundtable discussions to streamline investigation without sacrificing quality. A cultural and structural shift is needed to provide an environment to process cases more efficiently, justly and swiftly to alleviate overburdened dockets and unnecessary pre-trial detentions for low-level offenses.