‘Do what’s

1978). Many of his stories are humorous, outlandish, or harrowing. Ultimately, he was elected to the o ce six times, five times unopposed. His chief assistant, Greg Totten, was elected after Bradbury retired.

In the book, some names are changed to protect the innocent and culpable alike. Bradbury gives his take from the prosecutor’s perspective and hints at what it’s like to start out as a cowboy from Susanville whose legal mind becomes sought after by governors, attorneys general, and presidents.

Recruited to Ventura County

“Being from a law enforcement family, I didn’t think about being a prosecutor,” Bradbury says. “I wanted to be an FBI agent. My dad focused me in that direction, knowing I would have to go to law school. You either had to have a law degree or accounting degree back then.” Bradbury’s father was a sheri . His uncle and brothers were also in law enforcement. The FBI plan was set in stone. Or so he thought.

by KIMBERLY RIVERS

“All of a sudden, a guy named Woodru Deem, the district attorney of Ventura, a place I’d never heard of, showed up and he was interviewing. A buddy of mine said, ‘You’ve got to experience this guy.’ He said don’t worry about the job, just experience this guy. So I was interviewed. I was just blown away by the man. He was so internally powerful.”

Deem invited Bradbury “to come down to Ventura. He said, ‘Give me two years and it will make you a better agent,’ and decades later, I haven’t left.”

The DA’s o ce was young, intentionally. “Truly, after two years, people moved on,” Bradbury says. “It was the youngest o ce in the state. Woody intended it to be that way. He wanted this young blood. You had guys a year and a half out of law school trying murder cases. They’d just established a Public Defender’s O ce here in ’66. Those guys had 30 to 40 years of experience. I mean, they were eating us alive and they knew every trick in the book. They were the dregs of Los Angeles. And you learned fast and became a good lawyer fast. And all of a sudden, I knew I loved the courtroom. That’s where I wanted to be.”

Bradbury’s love of the courtroom “arena” kept him in the prosecutor’s o ce even after Deem retired and C. Stanley Trom succeeded him. “I thought Trom would be there forever. He was only a year older than I was.”