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DA sees progress in 2007
By Michael Gresham: mgresham@kaufmanherald.com
KAUFMAN - When District Attorney Rick Harrison and his new staff first reported to work on the second floor of the Kaufman County Courthouse on Jan. 1, 2007, they were confronted by an intimidating sight - more than 1,800 unprocessed cases jammed into five file cabinets.
“The oldest of these cases had not been looked at in more than nine months,” said Brian Corrigan, lead prosecutor for the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office. “At that time, it took nearly a year from the date of offense for the average case to reach a prosecutor's desk.”
According to Harrison, that backlog had an “immeasurable and devastating impact” on the district attorney's office to seek justice.
“From criminals who could quickly re-offend to cases deteriorating with the passage of time, our community was less safe with a district attorney's office that was drowning in a backlog,” Harrison explained “Not only was it a detriment to our work, but it was very expensive to taxpayers. The longer a case takes to be resolved, the more the county spends on court appointed lawyers instead of criminals paying fines and court costs.”
Adhering to an all hands on deck approach, the DA's office with cooperation from area law enforcement agencies, judges and the newly-appointed public defender, Andrew Jordan, whittled that backlog of cases away, eliminating it entirely by September 2007.
“With cooperation from a lot of different agencies and offices, we've made great strides in 2007,” Harrison said.
According to Corrigan, though, eliminating the backlog of cases took more than just doling out cases to eager staffers.
“Today, our intake consists of half of a drawer of new cases that are routinely processed and assigned to a prosecutor within 10 days,” Corrigan said. “Getting the cases to a lawyer was step one. Getting them to court was the next challenge.”
To help achieve that second goal, the district attorney petitioned the judges to create a second grand jury.
“The addition of second grand jury and the hard work of our lawyers and staff pushed the backlog out of our file cabinets and into the courtroom,” Corrigan explained.
With the addition of the second grand jury last February, the felony prosecutors in the Kaufman County DA's office returned 1,243 indictments in 2007, which Corrigan said is 30 percent more than the previous record (962 indictments) set in 2004 and 130 percent more than the 2006 total of 540 indictments.
Meanwhile, the district attorney's misdemeanor prosecutors filed a record 3,250 cases with the county clerk, which is nearly 1,000 more than any previous year in the history of the county.
“Thanks to the hard work of our office, we can now speed cases to court and keep violent offenders behind bars,” Corrigan said.
While Harrison and his staff tout the process as more efficient, the district attorney admits handling the growing number of cases is a challenge.
“Just handling this sheer number of cases would be a challenge if it is all we had to deal with,” Harrison said. “Unfortunately, it's not. The court's dockets were already jammed with cases when we arrived.”
According to Harrison, before he even took office, 150 cases were set for trial in the 86th District Court.
“That's about eight years of trials,” Harrison explained. “Many are first- and second-degree cases that have languished for upwards three to five years without disposition.”
Meanwhile Corrigan said the backlog created more than just headaches - it was cause of concern.
“Many of these old cases were cases that we could never prove from the outset,” he said. “More frightening, some of these cases were good cases with dangerous offenders on bond that never made it to the front of the line to be tried.”
In 2007, the district attorney's office worked to ease those concerns with felony prosecutors boasting a 100 percent conviction rate and misdemeanor prosecutors earning a 67 percent conviction rate, up from 40 percent in 2006.
“We've placed extra emphasis on creating a well-rounded staff that is dedicated to helping the people who live within Kaufman County,” Harrision. “Overall, we are better trial lawyers from top to bottom than we were a year ago.”
In 2007, the district attorney's office realized the final resolution of 3,583 criminal cases.
“That's the most in Kaufman County history excluding 2004 when the former district attorney at one time dismissed and refilled all pending cases for some reason,” said Corrigan, who expects the DA's office will build upon that progress in 2008. “As we continue to reduce the backlog, we will have the added bonus of better jury trial preparation, presentation and conviction rates.”
Of course, resolving cases in an efficient manner not only speeds up the wheels of justice. It also has a financial impact on the county, according to Corrigan.
“We have drastically improved the quality of our service to the community while reducing the cost of criminal justice to our citizens,” he explained. “Quicker resolution of cases increased cash collections in the county courts to $1.02 million, a 40 percent increase over 2006 ($729,238). In addition, working with the public defender's office, the cost of indigent defense was reduced by 20 percent over 2006.”
While Harrison admitted there is much work left to be done, he commended his staff as well as coopering law enforcement agencies, the public defender's office and Kaufman County judges for helping his office take steps in the right direction.
“This is a team effort,” he said. “To do this, it took a lot of cooperation from a lot of different people. Communication between entities is better and that has helped us take some positive steps in 2007.”
Corrigan summed up 2007 by saying the district attorney's office has simply become more efficient.
“We do a better job and we do it much faster,” he said. “Low-level offenders are paying fines, court costs and fees instead of taxpayers paying for court appointed lawyers. Felons are being prosecuted rapidly instead of wasting away on backlogged dockets with taxpayers footing the bill for the delay.”
“The oldest of these cases had not been looked at in more than nine months,” said Brian Corrigan, lead prosecutor for the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office. “At that time, it took nearly a year from the date of offense for the average case to reach a prosecutor's desk.”
According to Harrison, that backlog had an “immeasurable and devastating impact” on the district attorney's office to seek justice.
“From criminals who could quickly re-offend to cases deteriorating with the passage of time, our community was less safe with a district attorney's office that was drowning in a backlog,” Harrison explained “Not only was it a detriment to our work, but it was very expensive to taxpayers. The longer a case takes to be resolved, the more the county spends on court appointed lawyers instead of criminals paying fines and court costs.”
Adhering to an all hands on deck approach, the DA's office with cooperation from area law enforcement agencies, judges and the newly-appointed public defender, Andrew Jordan, whittled that backlog of cases away, eliminating it entirely by September 2007.
“With cooperation from a lot of different agencies and offices, we've made great strides in 2007,” Harrison said.
According to Corrigan, though, eliminating the backlog of cases took more than just doling out cases to eager staffers.
“Today, our intake consists of half of a drawer of new cases that are routinely processed and assigned to a prosecutor within 10 days,” Corrigan said. “Getting the cases to a lawyer was step one. Getting them to court was the next challenge.”
To help achieve that second goal, the district attorney petitioned the judges to create a second grand jury.
“The addition of second grand jury and the hard work of our lawyers and staff pushed the backlog out of our file cabinets and into the courtroom,” Corrigan explained.
With the addition of the second grand jury last February, the felony prosecutors in the Kaufman County DA's office returned 1,243 indictments in 2007, which Corrigan said is 30 percent more than the previous record (962 indictments) set in 2004 and 130 percent more than the 2006 total of 540 indictments.
Meanwhile, the district attorney's misdemeanor prosecutors filed a record 3,250 cases with the county clerk, which is nearly 1,000 more than any previous year in the history of the county.
“Thanks to the hard work of our office, we can now speed cases to court and keep violent offenders behind bars,” Corrigan said.
While Harrison and his staff tout the process as more efficient, the district attorney admits handling the growing number of cases is a challenge.
“Just handling this sheer number of cases would be a challenge if it is all we had to deal with,” Harrison said. “Unfortunately, it's not. The court's dockets were already jammed with cases when we arrived.”
According to Harrison, before he even took office, 150 cases were set for trial in the 86th District Court.
“That's about eight years of trials,” Harrison explained. “Many are first- and second-degree cases that have languished for upwards three to five years without disposition.”
Meanwhile Corrigan said the backlog created more than just headaches - it was cause of concern.
“Many of these old cases were cases that we could never prove from the outset,” he said. “More frightening, some of these cases were good cases with dangerous offenders on bond that never made it to the front of the line to be tried.”
In 2007, the district attorney's office worked to ease those concerns with felony prosecutors boasting a 100 percent conviction rate and misdemeanor prosecutors earning a 67 percent conviction rate, up from 40 percent in 2006.
“We've placed extra emphasis on creating a well-rounded staff that is dedicated to helping the people who live within Kaufman County,” Harrision. “Overall, we are better trial lawyers from top to bottom than we were a year ago.”
In 2007, the district attorney's office realized the final resolution of 3,583 criminal cases.
“That's the most in Kaufman County history excluding 2004 when the former district attorney at one time dismissed and refilled all pending cases for some reason,” said Corrigan, who expects the DA's office will build upon that progress in 2008. “As we continue to reduce the backlog, we will have the added bonus of better jury trial preparation, presentation and conviction rates.”
Of course, resolving cases in an efficient manner not only speeds up the wheels of justice. It also has a financial impact on the county, according to Corrigan.
“We have drastically improved the quality of our service to the community while reducing the cost of criminal justice to our citizens,” he explained. “Quicker resolution of cases increased cash collections in the county courts to $1.02 million, a 40 percent increase over 2006 ($729,238). In addition, working with the public defender's office, the cost of indigent defense was reduced by 20 percent over 2006.”
While Harrison admitted there is much work left to be done, he commended his staff as well as coopering law enforcement agencies, the public defender's office and Kaufman County judges for helping his office take steps in the right direction.
“This is a team effort,” he said. “To do this, it took a lot of cooperation from a lot of different people. Communication between entities is better and that has helped us take some positive steps in 2007.”
Corrigan summed up 2007 by saying the district attorney's office has simply become more efficient.
“We do a better job and we do it much faster,” he said. “Low-level offenders are paying fines, court costs and fees instead of taxpayers paying for court appointed lawyers. Felons are being prosecuted rapidly instead of wasting away on backlogged dockets with taxpayers footing the bill for the delay.”
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