LAKEPORT — Former Lake County District Attorney Jon Hopkins received a proclamation from the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 11, commending his nearly 12 years of public service to Lake County and more than 39 years of service to the people of California.
“I really appreciated the thought and the words, the kindness and support,” Hopkins said of the proclamation presentation. “It was very gratifying to see the large turnout, especially from my office because not only did I work hard for the community, but I worked hard for the people who work in the DA”s office.”
Hopkins, 65, first came to Lake County in 1997, at the request of then-DA Stephen Hedstrom to assist with murder cases against three individuals in connection with the death of John Robert Perrin.
Hopkins helped the Lake County DA”s Office receive convictions in the separate cases of Burrows, Burrows and Jensen while on a 14-month special assignment from the Santa Cruz County DA”s Office.
He had spent nearly 20 years working for Santa Cruz County, earning a reputation as a successful trial district attorney for high-profile felony cases.
Following the special assignment convictions in 1998, Hopkins competed for the Santa Cruz County DA”s position, from which the predecessor had vacated to seek a judgeship.
Another attorney was awarded the appointment, and Hopkins found himself with an offer from then-DA Gary Luck for a full-time position with Lake County. In April 1999, Hopkins began his tenure as Chief Deputy District Attorney for Lake County.
“I wasn”t sure if I would settle here for good or not, and the more I was here working in the DA”s Office,” he said, “the more I got to like the people and the place.”
Several high-profile, special-circumstances felony murder cases helped usher him into the county, according to Hopkins, who helped the county earn convictions in those three first-degree murder cases, including the case against Anthony Sidbeck for the killing of a 4-year-old girl and the Jeffrey Duvardo double-murder of his Nice-resident parents.
Hopkins attributed some of his success with prosecuting cases to the eight years he spent working as a public defender in Los Angeles County.
After earning a law degree from the California Western University School of Law, as it was then known, in San Diego in 1971, Hopkins clerked and then worked as a lawyer for the Los Angeles County Public Defender”s Office.
Hopkins spent nearly eight years as a chief DDA for Lake County before winning an unopposed bid for DA in 2006. His proudest accomplishments in Lake County spanned nearly his entire time with the DA”s office, Hopkins said, listing a number of administrative improvements near the top of the list.
Hopkins said he worked hard as chief DDA to upgrade the office”s technology, improve storage space, obtain grant funding and increase training. He said he helped the office organize and secure funding for a number of teams that focused on different areas, such as child abuse, elder abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence and narcotics trafficking.
“… You know we”re not swimming in money (Lake County), so every bit that I could do to get hold of grants to help pay for what I figured were priorities that the board would want to pay for anyway, saved the county money,” he said.
As DA, he was part of a community effort to establish a Multidisciplinary Interview Center (MDIC) for the DA”s Office Victim-Witness Division. Opening in 2008, the MDIC allows various agencies to coordinate single interviews with victims and witnesses.
Attorney recruitment and retention also improved during his term, Hopkins said, with only three individuals leaving the DA”s Office. “We had a revolving door,” he said of the DA”s Office before his term. “I think it was a low attrition rate and I”m real proud of how many we retained.”
2010 didn”t begin on a positive note for Hopkins when, in January, he was named in a lawsuit against the county filed in federal court by Bismarck Dinius, stemming from Dinius” 2009 acquittal of felony and misdemeanor boating under the influence.
Hopkins said he did not wish to speak about the case against Dinius nor the federal claim for damages filed by Dinius because the federal case is still pending.
Hopkins” bid for a second term fell short after he finished third in the June primary. Voters elected Don Anderson as Lake County DA in November.
Hopkins said he is proud of the team he assembled for DA”s office, which remains largely in place today.
Hopkins retired from Lake County on Dec. 30, three days before the official end of his term. He calls this early part of 2011 “a sabbatical” and said he has no firm plans for the immediate future, though he has been “contacted on two or three opportunities.”
“I want to be in more of a clear space, so that if something comes along, I won”t feel like I”m pressed to do it or that I shouldn”t consider it. So, I”m kind of in a transition space,” said Hopkins, who has no plans to move from Lakeport. “I want to fine-tune my body, my mind and my soul.”
Hopkins, a bass guitarist for several local bands, said he plans to practice and expand his music in addition to other life improvements. “I got to find my rhythm, and as a bass player, I expect not to have too difficult a time.”
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
