California Bar Imposes "Secret" Discipline on San Mateo County DA Steve Wagstaffe

The recent admonishment letter to Wagstaffe is the FIFTH disciplinary action taken by the California State Bar against TWO prosecutors and the DA in the Ayres case.

1) In 2013, prosecutor Melissa Mckowan was privately disciplined by the State Bar and required to take an ethics course for lying to the mother of an Ayres victim about contacting a potential prosecution witness.

2) In 2017, prosecutor Melissa Mckowan was publicly disciplined and placed on probation by the State Bar for making false statements in emails to an Ayres victim and his father that the Bar had found that the complainant had lied, not Mckowan.

3) In 2018 prosecutor Melissa Mckowan was radmonished by the State Bar for her questionable statement that she never contacted the Ayres victims about his parole hearing because her request to the police in assistance in notifying victims about Ayres' parole hearing went into "a spam folder."

In February 2018, after she had been disciplined twice by the State Bar, Mckowan left the San Mateo DA's office, for reasons that have not been adequately explained by DA Wagstaffe

4) In 2017, prosecutor Peter Lynch, whom Wagstaffe - under pressure from the Board of Supervisors - added to the Ayres case after Mckowan was disciplined by the State Bar in 2013, was sent a warning letter by the State Bar for making false statements at a December 2013 parole hearing after an inmate disclosed to the Board that Ayres had molested him when he was a juvenile. Lynch falsely claimed that the inmate was lying about the molestation because there were no Ayres victims prior to 1980. In fact, victims from the 1960s and 70s were used to get a search warrant on Ayres home and some testified at Ayres' trial and sentencing. Lynch also falsely claimed that there was a court order against a victim's advocate for getting victims to make up allegtations against Ayres, and falsely suggested the advocate had gotten the inmate to make up allegation

5)The State Bar sent DA Wagstaffe a letter of an admonishment for making a false statement to the Almanac that the police never received a request to contact victims about Ayres' parole hearing. Emails from the DA's office and the San Mateo PD obtained through public records requests show that the police DID receive a request from the DA's office.

How many warning letters and letters of admonishment does it take for the Bar to do something?

We believe Wagstaffe has received multiple Bar warnings. Those with information, please post here .

As District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe was admonished by the California State Bar for remarks he made to Almanac reporter Dave Boyce in 2016 regarding Ayres prosecutor Melissa Mckowan’ s failure to notify victims about Dr Ayres’ parole hearing, we hope that the Almanac will cover this story