Bonnie Dumanis

Early life and education

Dumanis grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts, the daughter of Ann and Abraham "Abe" Dumanis. Her father was a truck driver as well as a professional musician; her mother worked for a government program assisting women and children. Dumanis received a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Western State University College of Law (now Thomas Jefferson School of Law) in 1976, and was admitted to the bar in 1977.

Career

Her first job was as a junior typist in San Diego County as she studied law at night. Following admission to the bar, she served as a Deputy District Attorney from 1978 to 1990.

In 1994, she was elected to the Municipal Court where she served for four years and started the first Drug Courts in San Diego. In 1998, she was elected to the San Diego Superior Court where she started a program called Domestic Violence Court to reduce recurrences by perpetrators.

In 2003 she ran for District Attorney and defeated incumbent Paul Pfingst. She ran for re-election unopposed in 2006 and 2010. She faced two challengers when she ran for a fourth term in 2014, but won re-election in the June primary by getting 55% of the vote.

In 2012 Dumanis ran for Mayor of San Diego, did not advance from the primary election, and later endorsed Carl DeMaio in the general election.

In 2006 she campaigned for California Proposition 83 (2006), California's version of Jessica's Law, which restricts where paroled sex offenders can live and requires them to wear tracking devices (which she calls "the LoJack for sex offenders") for the rest of their life.

In January 2017 she said she would not run for a fifth term when her current term expires in 2018. In April 2017 she announced her intention to resign her office effective July 7. She said she is considering running for a seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

Selected cases

D.C. v. Heller

Dumanis filed an amicus curiae brief in the case D.C. v. Heller, supporting the District of Columbia's ban on keeping functional firearms in the home for self-defense, and on the possession of handguns.

Cynthia Sommer

In April 2008, a woman accused and convicted by Dumanis's office of murder, was released, after two plus years of incarceration. Cynthia Sommer was convicted of fatally poisoning her Miramar Marine husband with arsenic. Charges were dropped on reasonable doubt after conclusions reached by toxicology experts during a review, prompted by the defense, of the evidence used for trial and conviction. Dumanis said her office acted based on available evidence when it charged Sommer with murder in March 2006 and tried her in January 2007.

Marijuana prosecutions

In February 2009, the District Attorney's office filed charges against 33 individuals charged in a drug investigation called Endless Summer. In a press conference for the operation Dumanis said the investigation was to protect military housing. After further investigation it was revealed that 14 of those arrested are medical marijuana patients who were the initial target of the investigation named Green RX. Most of those charged were shown not to have any ties to the military, as initially claimed by Dumanis' office. Since that time at least two of the 14 medical marijuana defendants have been acquitted by juries; jurors said the law was unclear or ambiguous. One of those defendants was acquitted in 2009 and tried a second time in 2010 based on a different raid; he was convicted but the conviction was overturned. In October 2013 Dumanis' office took him to trial a third time in San Diego Superior Court. The case has been described as "a symbol of the effort by Dumanis and other prosecutors across the state to criminalize storefront medical marijuana dispensaries".

Recognition

In 2008, Dumanis was inducted into the Women's Museum of California's Hall of Fame honoring her career and achievements.

In 2013 the Log Cabin Republican Club of San Diego named her "Woman of the Year".