District Attorney Maggie Fleming today sent out a press release announcing the latest hiring of a new deputy DA — a woman named Carolyn Schaffer, who comes to our shores from the Contra Costa DA’s Office. Such new-hire press releases have come at a fairly steady clip in the year-and-a-half since Fleming took office — so frequently, in fact, that this latest one got us wondering exactly how much the county’s top law enforcement office has grown during her tenure.

In her wildly successful election campaign two-plus years ago, Fleming promised to reorganize and rejuvenate an office that many felt had stumbled into dysfunction under former DA Paul Gallegos. When she took over in January of 2015 she had just 10 prosecutors on staff to handle the county’s sizable caseload. 

With the Schaffer hire announced today, Fleming has now brought on 11 new deputy DAs. One of those hires, Moksha Chattopadyha, has since left, as have three of the attorneys who were onboard when she took office: Luke Brownfield, Jason Sheets and Kelly Neel. That brings the DA’s Office prosecutor count to 17 — or 18, counting Fleming herself, though she rarely argues cases in the courtroom. 

Fleming also borrowed veteran attorney Paul Sequeira from the Mendocino County DA’s Office to argue the Jason Warren double-murder trial.

Here’s the latest press release:

Today, Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming announced the hiring of Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Schaffer. Ms. Schaffer, a graduate of UC San Diego and Santa Clara Law School, has worked as a Deputy District Attorney in the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office since January 2013. While working as a Deputy District Attorney she also volunteered as a coach for high school mock trial teams, a program run by the UC Berkeley School of Law Center for Youth Development through Law. She will be assigned a general caseload of felonies and misdemeanors.