Jackie: Our current District Attorney, Patricia Perlow, has only been on the job for 7 months. She was appointed by Gov Kate Brown last year, after the previous DA Alex Gardner resigned.

Remember, there was ethical controversy during her appointment, over her role as being one of the two prosecutors who listened to a secret tape recording of a confession by a Lane County inmate named Conan Wayne Hale to a Catholic priest. When that happened in 1996 , it was a big scandal, making headlines around the world.

Here are some comments from back then about what Perlow and the DA’s office did:

“This is naked fascism, truly the end of the line. It yanks at the very pillars of separation between church and state.” – William F Buckley

“This is unprecedented in American history … a N A Z I  tactic” –Catholic League for Religious & Civil Rights

The Vatican was furious with the Lane County DA:

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/26/us/vatican-wants-tape-of-jail-confession-destroyed.html