Author Topic: Data raises questions about Harris County DA’s push for 100 more lawyers  (Read 405 times)

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Online Elderberry

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Houston Chronicle by Keri Blakinger June 10, 2019

When a line of prosecutors stepped up to the microphone at Harris County Commissioners Court in February, they told tales of long hours, endless to-do lists and bloated caseloads well into the triple digits.

Their impassioned pleas and barrage of data were part of the push by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for an unprecedented $21 million expansion that would add more than 100 lawyers to its staff.

But despite a weeks-long campaign, District Attorney Kim Ogg’s budget request failed. Now, four months later, records obtained by the Houston Chronicle and The Appeal indicate that the attorney caseload figures used to justify the request appear to overstate the office’s workload.

The data presented to commissioners and the public did not reflect that about two-thirds of the felony trial bureau attorneys consistently handle a smaller number of complex cases. Instead, it frequently presented the caseloads of the remaining third of the attorneys — those who handle over 900 cases on average — as representative of the whole trial bureau. The office also counted every charge in an arrest as a separate case and included more than 200 cases put on hold after defendants had not yet been arrested or had fled after violating the conditions of their bonds.


Prosecutors caseloads

Data released by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office listed the average caseloads on Oct. 1 for three groups of prosecutors in each felony court — the chief, the felony two prosecutor and the least-experienced felony three prosecutor. But the DA’s office repeatedly cited caseload numbers that referred only to the lowest-level prosecutors.

25 - Average number of cases for chief prosecutors

199 - Average number for felony two prosecutors

928 - Average number for felony three prosecutors

Source: Harris County District Attorney’s Office

Based on the numbers provided by the DA’s office, an average caseload for “felony two” and “felony three” prosecutors combined would be less than 600, if all positions were filled in each court — and would be even lower if chiefs were included. Exact staff assignments that month were not released with the data.

A spokesperson said prosecutors met individually with the commissioners before the February budget vote. The Commissioners Court — a five-member elected body whose duties include setting tax rates and overseeing county courthouses — is the final word on expanding the DA’s budget.

“There were several conversations in which our lawyers privately went through in detail what our caseloads are and where, with staff for each of the commissioners,” district attorney’s office spokesperson Dane Schiller wrote in an email.

When pressed for an explanation of the discrepancies and oversights in the data, he initially said he did not have enough staff to respond but commented days later on some of the follow-up questions.

Case by case

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Data-raises-questions-about-Harris-County-DA-s-13961223.php

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Just think of the policies the liberal lesbian DA will enact with the current liberal Harris County judges and 100 new liberal DA staff?

Watch out Houston, you will get slammed with all sorts of new enforcements as the prosecutors and judicial demand you grovel before them.
No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin~  George Washington