The abrupt resignation last week of Mariposa County District Attorney Walter Wall has left a number of questions that will need to be answered in the next few weeks.
State law requires that the assistant district attorney takes over when the DA leaves, and Assistant DA Gerard Egan said he will take over beginning July 1.
Wall is leaving office on June 30.
The Mariposa County Board of Supervisors will appoint someone to fill the balance of Wall’s term in an interim capacity through 2028, when the position will be on the ballot.
The elected DA must be a Mariposa County resident.
Egan told the Mariposa Gazette he doesn’t know if he will ask to be considered by the board of supervisor’s to fill the position for the remaining two years.
Likewise, he has not decided whether to run for the position in 2028.
Egan, who lives in Merced, would need to become a Mariposa County resident to be elected DA. Residency is not a requirement to fill the position on an interim basis, however.
The board of supervisors may also need to decide whether to raise the pay of the office to attract viable candidates.
The position currently pays $180,420.
Wall had recently asked the board for a pay raise to make his pay competitive with district attorneys in comparable counties.
The board declined to take up his request and people close to Wall said it played a role in his resignation.
Wall has declined to say where he has accepted a job, but said he and his family will still be living in Mariposa County.
Wall’s departure leaves three licensed attorneys in the Mariposa County DA’s office: Egan, Wall’s son-in-law, Joshua Mireles, who was hired in January as a deputy district attorney, and Deputy DA Victoria Fernandez, who was hired last month.
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