SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Paris Coleman announced his candidacy for Sacramento County District Attorney in May and several months later, he has confirmed to ABC10 he is "leaving the race."
It is unclear why he is leaving the race at this time.
Coleman was endorsed by outgoing DA Anne Marie Schubert. He was running on his track record as an “experienced bridge builder” who is committed to making Sacramento “safe for everyone.”
“We need police officers who understand the people they’re serving, prosecutors who search for the truth without bias and a system of accountability that doesn’t just seek to incarcerate but is focused on what we all want – the reduction of crime in our communities and people held accountable for unlawful behavior,” Coleman told ABC10 in May.
Schubert, who’s vacating the position in order to run for California Attorney General, had called Coleman a “uniter” who could bring people together to solve problems “equitably and fairly.”
Sacramento County Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Thien Ho is running to become the next Sacramento County District Attorney.
Ho joins former Deputy DA Alana Mathews, who announced she was running in early May. Ho is perhaps best known as lead prosecutor on the East Area Rapist/Golden State Killer case, which resulted in convicted serial killer Joseph James DeAngelo sentenced to 11 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for 13 murders, and an additional life term for 13 kidnappings.
Ho was presented with the Prosecutor of the Year Award from the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office in 2017. Later that same year, he was nationally recognized as the prosecutor of the year by the National Asian Pacific Islander Prosecutor's Association.
“Paris Coleman is an experienced prosecutor who has served the community with the utmost integrity. I look forward to working closely with him to keep the people of Sacramento County safe and our justice system fair to everyone,” Ho said in a statement to ABC10 about Coleman leaving the race.
For Mathews, her campaign website said she "has worked to protect victims in the courtroom while also focusing on reducing crime in the community."
"My experience as a Sacramento prosecutor, an advocate for change and public policy expert and most importantly a mother, I'm uniquely qualified for this position," Matthews told ABC10 in May.
Mathews said she is victim-focused, being that she knows what it's like.
"I've been the victim of gun violence, racial violence and domestic violence," Mathews said. "Let that empower and inform what I can do to make a change."
Responding to an inquiry from ABC10, she responded to Coleman's departure from the race.
"Races are fluid and there may be many more twists ahead but my experience as a frontline prosecutor combined with my work in the community is resonating with community leaders and members as someone who will bring real change to the office of the District Attorney," Mathews said, in part, in a statement to ABC10. "I wish Paris well and look forward to forging a path to make Sacramento County more safe, fair, and just."
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