SAN DIEGO: Veteran prosecutor convicted of asking police sergeant to fix ticket resigns

(CNS) – A veteran San Diego County prosecutor convicted of
conspiracy to obstruct justice and other misdemeanor counts for asking a San
Diego police sergeant to fix a seat belt ticket she got while riding with a
colleague has resigned, a spokesman for the District Attorney's Office said
Wednesday.

Allison Debow, also known as Allison Worden, faces up to a year in jail
when she is sentenced March 8.

Had she accepted the ticket, Debow would have had to pay a $142 fine as
a first-time adult offender, according to the California Office of Traffic
Safety.

The 37-year-old former prosecutor was supposed to be sentenced today,
but defense attorney Paul Pfingst told Judge Louis Hanoian that he needed more
time to file a motion for a new trial. Debow was not in court for the brief
hearing.

Debow had been on paid administrative leave since last year pending the
outcome of the criminal case. She submitted her resignation Tuesday, effective
at the end of the month, said district attorney's spokesman Steve Walker.

Debow testified that she used “poor judgment” by telling the officer
who issued the tickets to her and fellow prosecutor Amy Maund that they were
deputy district attorneys.

The defendant said she told investigators from her office that she
believed her friend, Sgt. Kevin Friedman, had dismissed the tickets.

Friedman told investigators that he didn't get rid of the citations, and
an attorney representing Debow told her that a police official higher up the
chain of command probably deleted the tickets from the system.

Deputy Attorney General Michael Murphy said Debow was a passenger in a
car driven by friend and fellow prosecutor Maund, who was pulled over on May
28, 2011, in Pacific Beach because Debow didn't have her seat belt on. The two
had just had pedicures.

Debow became angry when the officer issued them both citations and
called her friend Friedman, Murphy told the jury. Within six hours, the tickets
were out of the system, according to the prosecutor.

During the traffic stop, Debow told the officers that she and Maund were
deputy district attorneys and didn't violate any laws.

Pfingst said the officer who issued the citations acted inappropriately
by leaning into the car on Debow's side and invading her personal space.

Friedman, who was also charged in the case, pleaded no contest last May
to destroying a traffic citation and later resigned from the department.