(PresidentialInsider.com)- Last week, a veteran child abuse prosecutor in Multnomah County, Oregon, resigned over what she described as the failed leadership of District Attorney Mike Schmidt.
Amber Kinney, who handles some of the most serious and complex cases in Oregon’s largest district attorney’s office, said under Schmidt’s tenure, progress for women in the DA’s office has been “set back decades.”
In a blistering seven-page resignation letter to Schmidt, Kinney told Schmidt that she planned to remain in her position through an upcoming child sexual abuse trial, but would be leaving afterward.
Kinney has been with the Multnomah County DA’s office for thirteen years. While she declined to speak publicly about her resignation, those briefed on her plans said she is quitting before she has a new position lined up.
Mike Schmidt’s office released a statement calling Kinney “an excellent attorney and an asset to this office.”
Schmidt’s statement did not directly address Kinney’s claims. Instead, he offered a boilerplate defense that he supports “equity, transparency, and equal opportunity” within the DA’s office. Schmidt also bragged that the DA’s office is more diverse than the general population of Multnomah County.
Kinney’s resignation was not due to the radical Left agenda of the District Attorney’s office. In her resignation letter, Kinney was clear that she, like Schmidt, believes in “equitable” and “progressive” criminal justice reforms.
Instead, Kinney cited the doubling of her workload over the past two years and the lack of advancement for women who work in the DA’s office. While there is a 50/50 split between men and women in Schmidt’s office, Kinney argued that women are overlooked in promotions and only four of the 20 people in supervisory positions are women.
Kinney pointed out that since Schmidt took over the DA’s office in August 2020, seven men were promoted or hired into leadership positions and for the first time in decades, every felony unit in the DA’s office is run by a man.
She called the gender disparity the “embarrassing reality of a DA’s office that prides itself on being progressive.”
Kinney argued that vulnerable women who are victims of violent crime “deserve female prosecutors.”
