Kudos to the Mercury News for bothering to ask why the Santa Clara County DA’s office, usually proficient in filing charges in assault cases, has agonized for two weeks over how to handle an assault case involving star 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks. If you recall, lower level prosecutors obtained a warrant for Brooks’ arrest on felony charges in late June only to have higher-ups in the office intercede. Brooks is accused of striking teammate Lamar Divens’ over the head three times with a beer bottle and punching him in the face after Divens, a designated driver, refused to give Brooks, who was allegedly drunk at the time, his car keys.The Merc’s Tracey Kaplan looked at the handling of similar cases over an eight-week stretch to determine if there’s a difference between how cases are handled depending on whether you’re, say, a truck driver, or a millionaire star athlete. Read it here.
