Budget cuts to the District Attorney’s Office may force certain criminal charges to go untried in Lane County starting next month.
Beginning May 1, the agency will cease prosecuting 102 nonviolent misdemeanors, such as theft under $750 and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, in an effort to save money. The move will reduce the agency’s workload by 2,000 cases and save about $270,000.
District Attorney Doug Harcleroad said his office also will stop prosecuting about 1,000 drug felony cases and 650 nonviolent felony cases to save additional funds.
The reductions are part of the agency’s plan to reduce more than $1 million from its budget. The county is struggling to meet 9 percent across-the-board cuts to make up for a $4.1 million shortfall projected in the county’s Discretionary General Fund for the 2004-2005 fiscal year.
While the misdemeanor crimes will not be prosecuted at the county level, local police agencies will continue to arrest suspects, Harcleroad said. He said arrests are necessary to “have some semblance of holding (criminals) accountable.”
“We should have police out there arresting bad guys, no question about that,” he said.
Harcleroad said the cuts to misdemeanor prosecutions must be enacted before July because the department is understaffed. Only four of six misdemeanor prosecutor positions are currently filled. Harcleroad said he won’t be able to hire new lawyers because of budgetary woes.
He said an analysis of his entire department’s workload would necessitate 32 attorneys, while he has only 24 on staff.
In an April 21 memorandum about the cuts addressed to county courts and police agencies, Harcleroad said the reductions will be “a blow to public safety in Lane County.”
“I deeply regret taking this action,” he said in the memo.
The list of crimes that won’t be prosecuted included prostitution, theft or credit card fraud of less than $750, mail theft, prohibited camping and physical harassment.
The memo also included 38 misdemeanors that will be prosecuted, including fourth-degree assault, child neglect, drunken driving, resisting arrest, third-degree sexual abuse and unlawful possession of a weapon. Misdemeanors that are committed along with felonies will also be prosecuted, Harcleroad said.
Harcleroad also said in the memo that police officers may try to file misdemeanors as violations, which result in fines rather than jail time and are tried in city courts.
Among the drug-related crimes that won’t be prosecuted are some involving marijuana. Harcleroad said manufacturers and mid-level and above dealers of substantive quantities of marijuana will still be prosecuted, but people who possess or sell small amounts of marijuana won’t be brought to court unless the charges against them are violations prosecuted by the city.
“We will have no ability to prosecute those cases,” Harcleroad said.
Harcleroad said his staff currently works about 48,000 hours annually and must deal with around 8,000 cases, leaving only six hours per case if each case was to be prosecuted. Under such strict time constraints, Harcleroad said it would be impossible for attorneys to deal with cases involving severe crimes.
“The message here is that I’ve got 1,000 to 1,500 cases that blow the six hour figure right out of the water,” Harcleroad said.
Sgt. Pete Deshpande, a detective with the Eugene Police Department’s Property Crimes Unit said his unit will be affected by the reduction in the number of prosecuted cases. Property crimes, especially those classified as misdemeanors, are the largest number of crimes committed nationally, Deshpande said. He said despite the reduction in cases that will be
prosecuted, police officers will maintain their normal operations.
“We’re going to continue to do our jobs fully,” he said.
However, Deshpande said many theft cases will have to be handled by municipal courts, which may result in “tremendous backlog and delays.”
Deshpande also said victims of property crimes may not feel a sense of justice if the crimes committed against them go unpunished.
“The sense of violation (victims) feel, the sense of intrusion they feel after they’ve been broken into, is a very real thing,” he said. “If these cuts actually take place, it’s going to be a very sad thing for the community.”
Department of Public Safety Interim Director Thomas Hicks said it is unclear how the cuts would affect DPS. He said most charges in cases involving DPS are handled by the Eugene Police Department, which actually makes the arrests.
“We’re not exactly sure what the impact is going to be with us,” Hicks said.
He said certain services provided at the county level, such as mental health counseling, may not be available to those convicted of crimes at the city level.
“I certainly think it’s important that the citizenry recognize all the services offered through the Lane County District Attorney’s Office that are in jeopardy,” he said.