Service ∙ Hard Work ∙ Transparency ∙ Integrity

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– by a rink worker with a squeegee and a garden hose. A Zamboni would have woke up the whole neighborhood. Alison was alone on the ice. It was, she remembered, heaven, like flying on knives.

Her daughter, Alison knows, is too tall for the top levels of a sport whose current kings and queens are elfin and acrobatic. Nor does she wish upon her the endless, early-morning sessions, the tendonitis, the travel, the intensity of competing with the hordes for what amounts to three Olympic spots every four years. Alison does not wish upon her daughter what she did before she decided to become a prosecutor.

In her office overlooking the Main Jail, Deputy District Attorney Alison Filo focuses on the technical details of her sex assault caseload – an au pair drugged, raped and dumped in a park not that far from the Winter Lodge, a four-year-old molested by a baby sitter, a teacher who serially abused his blindfolded students.

There are a few visual clues of her lifelong artistic and athletic passion: her daughter’s water-colored drawing of a single skate above her computer, a photo of Alison when she was an elegant showgirl on ice. Around the prosecutor’s neck is a small pendant that is awarded only to those who achieve the highest standard of U.S. figure skating skills – the gold test medal. Her father put it around her neck at the Belmont Iceland when she was 16.

The prosecutor’s passion persists. On a recent weekend, she was rink side. There was the swelling music and the paper tearing sound of skates on perfect ice. Alison was focused on the technical details of Salchow jumps and flying camel spins of a long line of young girls wearing white skates and performance smiles, dreaming the same dream that she once had.

“What I do is dark and twisted and ugly,” Alison said of prosecuting sex criminals. “On my weekends I get to watch pretty girls twirl around in handmade costumes with complete joy. It’s a good sanity check.”

Ron Hershberger, Alison’s father, is a lawyer too, and a revered

THE WEST WINGSanta Clara County District Attorney’s Office

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70 West Hedding St., West Wing, San Jose, CA 95110

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Alison Filo, a national figure skating judge, has only gentle appraisals as her daughter shakily glides across the outdoor Palo Alto rink, where Alison herself skated as a child. She would arrive at the Winter Lodge with her mother as the sun was rising through the trees and lace up her custom-made Harlicks. The surface back then was groomed especially for her - the pretty Palo Alto prodigy

countered with a stack of his own letters that proved his knowledge of the order and disregard for the law. Wise worked closely with the victim to build rapport and gave her the confidence to testify about her fear of the defendant. To the jury, Wise succinctly explained the difference between intent and motive, two components that are often confused.

“Motive is the goal, why you do it,” she explained. “Intent and motive are not the same. The motive of the defendant was to speak to the victim. The intent, without a doubt, was fear.” With Wise’s convincing presentation of the facts, the support she gave to the victim and the clear explanation of the crime of stalking, the jury soon brought justice to the victim. The cycle was finally over. The defendant was found guilty.

The presiding judge tells you that your case is weak, and that your

key witness is the least credible witness she has ever had in her courtroom. You experience technical difficulties with your equipment as the courtroom fills with squirming 5th graders. The

defendant claims she is not guilty. The defendant has an in-custody friend who is willing to take the fall. It’s also your first trial as a Santa Clara County D.D.A.

Just 10 days after finishing her two-week training and orientation, Prosecutor Teresa Souto began picking the jury for her first trial. It was a DUI case where the defendant claimed she was not the driver. Five months since the night of the arrest gave the defendant plenty of time to change her story that she was the driver, an admission she made to the arresting officer. D.D.A. Souto was facing a difficult trial. However, she stayed focused and pushed forward. With a strong closing argument, D.D.A. Souto convinced the jury that the defendant lacked credibility and was desperate in her attempts to escape responsibility. The defendant was found guilty.

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It was also exhausting. Lots of the skaters struggled to keep their weight in check, used ex-lax or other drugs. There were weekly checks. You were fined five dollars for every pound over 126.

One of her last regular gigs on ice was a variety show at Great America. She lived at home. But it got tiring. She wanted something more intellectually challenging.

“I was working with a bunch of 35-year-old girls who couldn’t find a ‘T’ on a typewriter.”

Alison decided to go to college, first San Jose State and then Santa Clara University. She tried to balance the two – show skating all over the country on weekends and flying back to take classes.

Alison was an Administration of Justice major, with thoughts that she might join the FBI. But in 1992 she took an internship at the Santa Clara County D.A.’s Office and decided to become a trial lawyer.

figure in the skating world. Despite serving as president of the U.S Figure Skating Association, he probably couldn’t skate backward without falling. There were no amazing athletes in the family, no hockey players, no skaters at all when Alison began skating at seven - strictly for fun. Local instructors noticed the spinning, athletic girl. They told her parents that she should get a private coach. Soon she was getting up at 4 a.m. to get the early morning ice session with top coaches in Redwood City and Foster City. Five hours on the ice at a time. She skated alongside and sometimes against the other young stars in the area – Debi Thomas, Kristi Yamaguchi – Alison began to think that maybe, just maybe, she could represent the country in the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. School, tackled through a handful of classes, homeschooling and a year at boarding school, was secondary. Hour after hour, she would go through her routines as the themes from “On Golden Pond” or “Madame Butterfly” would play. But the precise and ornate figure eights that all skaters had to perfectly carve over and over began

Stalked. Physical and mental abuse. Threats and demands. For years,

the victim endured her stalker’s demand for power and control. The defendant insisted on contact and ignored all pleas and demands, even a court ordered Restraining Order, to stay away. After multiple violations of the court order were rejected or dismissed, the victim thought the cycle would never end -- until Prosecutor Rebekah Wise stepped in. When Wise filed one count of stalking in violation of a restraining order as a felony, the victim believed there could be an end to her fear.

This was D.D.A. Wise’s first felony trial. When the defendant claimed he did not know about the Restraining Order, Wise

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THE WEST WING

to take a toll on her hip muscles. She had to take weeks off and then months for the tendonitis. Then it became painfully clear that she could not skate competitively anymore. She was 17.

“That was not a good time for me. I had invested a lot of my life into skating. Now I look back and see that I was a very successful local competitor. But I can see now, even without injury, I was not realistically going to compete with the nation’s top skaters.”

Retired from competitive skating and still in her late teens, Alison’s next choice seemed obvious: Showbiz.

Alison began to perform in ice shows: a version of Ice Capades, at rinks in San Antonio, New Orleans, and at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. She was 18. It was exhilarating. The money was great.

“It was all the fun stuff and none of the pressure that you were going to fall down,” she said. “We didn’t get out of the show until 1 in the morning but Vegas at 1 a.m. was just getting started. I’m 18 years old, no one cares that I’m not 21, and I have on show makeup. Wild ride, man.”

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Q: Where did you grow up?

A: Mostly in Japan. My dad was in the Air Force (AF), so when I was 6 we went to Germany. Every 2 or 3 years we moved around between Okinawa, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. We’d come to the United States for a bit.

Q: What did he do in the Air Force?

A: You know, I couldn’t tell you. It was all top secret.

Q: How did you decide to get into the service on your own?

A: I think I always knew I was going to join, because my dad, my uncle, my brother, my cousin, everyone was in the service.

Q: Why the Navy?

A: I went to the AF because my dad was in the AF. As I walk out of the AF Recruiter, the Navy recruiter is standing there and you know they have their dungaree uniforms and the little bellbottoms and everything else. And he was like, “So what did he tell you?” So I said, “I can’t get in until September.” “I’ll get you in two weeks.” So April 1, 1976, I said I do.

Q: What were your dreams for the Navy? What did you see yourself as within the Navy?

A: I had gone to a nursing assistant program when I was in Fresno and I wanted to save lives.

Q: So what was the Navy like?

A: I already grew up saying, “Yes Sir. Yes Ma’am.” I already knew about the uniforms. So it was easy for me.

Q: So you got into the Navy, and you were thinking you wanted to be a nurse?

A: It’s called a Corpsman. Give an injection, draw blood, dispense medication, dress a wound, I mean they train you for everything. They give you this pretty uniform to put on.

Q: You must be very patriotic?

A: When you are on a military base they play “The Stars and Stripes” and everyone stands up. At 16:30, which is 4:30 p.m. the end of the work day, they play the national anthem and you stop, and you either salute if you are in uniform or put your hand (motions to hand on heart), that’s the way I grew up. I can’t imagine people that aren’t, even now it chokes me up that some people don’t appreciate what they have.

Q: How did you get into the legal world?

A: I went to the US Post Office. I knew as a veteran they have to hire you. It was so hard. You had mandatory overtime and we worked from noon to 9:00 p.m., six days a week. I’m like, “This is ridiculous!” I was in a post office and one of the women there that I worked with said, “I’m going to take a typing test for the county and you should come.” So I took the typing test and I passed. I was at the Board of Supervisors for three months. I thought, “No, I don’t like this.” One of the women I worked with said, “I went to work at the D.A.’s Office. It’s wonderful over there!” So after three months at the Board of Supervisors I’m like, “I’m going to the D.A.’s Office.”

Q: Royann, do you still feel that you are helping people?

A: Every day. It’s a joy to come to work because I know now I’m not saving lives, but I’m helping, striving for justice. When I came here, I was an Advanced Clerk Typist. I moved up from complaints, and then records, then I became a legal clerk where you work with the attorneys. I did that for five years, and then I was like, “Maybe I’ll be a secretary.” It’s a lot of work. I don’t think people appreciate sometimes how much the support staff does. I’m here to help whatever attorney, even if they are not on my floor, to do whatever he can do to represent this office. I need to do my best, because not only is it a reflection of myself, but the D.A. I have to do the best job I can possibly do.

Royann Wilson’s desk in the legal secretary pool is adorned with American flags, the Soldier’s Creed, and a bumper sticker that says “Life, liberty and the pursuit of all who threaten it.” Yes, she is

patriotic. Yes, she chokes up talking about freedom and those who abuse it. What you may not know is that Royann proudly served her country for 30 years before she got here.

THE WEST WING

...with Legal Secretary Royann Wilson

Q & A

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“It’s a little bit more intellectual, but it’s still an extension of performing. You need to be comfortable in front of a bunch of people; you’re still putting on a show.”

She stopped skating professionally in 1993, when she graduated college, ready to move on. But not entirely. In 1996, she helped choreograph the opening and closing ceremonies in the National Figure Skating championships in San Jose. But by the late ‘90s, the sport was suffering from a judging crisis.

“All the judges were 112 years old.”

Nobody was very interested in judging because it was required that skaters give up their professional status and most of the skaters with whom Alison competed needed their skating to make a living. Fortunately, Alison already had another career, as a prosecutor.

Her amateur status was reinstated. Even on an accelerated path, it took her seven years to be named a national judge.

“It’s easier to get out of Harvard than to become

WHAT’S GOING ON? WEST WING GALLERY

In Memoriam

“Justice for All” Art Show

Josue Fuentes, Deputy District Attorney, received the District Attorney’s Office Employee Excellence Award for the month of June 2014.

April Pereda, Lead Legal Secretary II, received the District Attorney’s Office Employee Excellence Award for the month of August 2014.

REACT received the 2014 “Task Force of the Year” award from the Southern California Chapter of the International Association of Financial Crimes

Investigators Association during their annual meeting in June. REACT was recognized for the outstanding work in identifying and arresting a family involved in a credit card skimming operation.

Bellarmine Prep Sports Hall of Famer Charles Gillingham

NAPIPA First Scholarship Banquet

... Prosecutor On Ice(Cont. from page 2)

(CLICK each photo to read a story in electronic version or visit www.santaclara-da.org)

THE WEST WING

a National Figure Skating judge.”

Mr. Hershberger, who unified a series of failing Bay area skating enterprises into the powerhouse Peninsula Skating Club and later convinced the international skating bodies to hold the 1992 World Figure Skating Championships in Oakland, said that he sees a natural nexus between the law and skating. The two both reward deep concentration, time management and careful attention to detail.

“Law has a certain process, and skating also has a process,’’ Mr. Hershberger, said. “There are certain rules you have to follow and if you do these things in the right order, then you get certain results. Judging skating is analytical. Alison is very analytical.”

Now she rarely skates, if only to hang out with her daughter at the Winter Lodge during a lesson. She enjoys passing on the love of skating but does not wish the craziness of competition upon her daughter.

She loves the close, supportive community of skating. Last February,

she found herself at the Nationals in Boston sitting in a row of local skating legends: her father, Sunnyvale’s Brian Boitano and Peggy Fleming, a San Jose native. Alison sat next to the East Bay’s Kristi Yamaguchi as they both compulsively checked their phones for 49ers score updates.

As she sits on the judging panels up to 10 times a year, she sees skaters doing things on skates beyond what her 16-year-old imagination could have dreamed. Sometimes, when she hears the music from “Madame Butterfly,” her body can remember every glide and jump of her routine, when she was a top teenaged skater. She remembers what it felt like to fly.