Durham DA’s plight prompts rapid response (News and Observer)
DURHAM District attorneys’ offices across the state are about to get some relief from the understaffing that has plagued them since last spring.
Five vacant positions in Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline’s office prompted her to drop out of the county’s Crime Cabinet last week. The cabinet brings together local law-enforcement agencies, the courts, businesses, neighborhoods and youth advocacy groups to share information and coordinate resources against crime.
“I am already giving too many serious cases to so few people,” Cline wrote to the Crime Cabinet on Friday. “Please excuse my absence for awhile.”
Cline’s note prompted action by Durham city and county officials. By Tuesday afternoon the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, which controls DA office budgets, had agreed to fill two of Durham’s empty positions come Oct. 1. That will still leave three empty spots, with one assistant district attorney out on maternity leave at least until January.
Gregg Stahl, the AOC’s senior deputy director, said Durham’s shortage was greater than some counties but smaller than others. Prosecutor’s offices in Orange and Chatham have no vacancies, and Wake County can fill its lone vacancy after Oct. 1.
But DA’s offices in Johnston, Harnett, Lee and Gaston counties will retain 20 percent staffing shortfalls because state statute limits their size while their actual needs have grown, based on an AOC formula.
“If you’re going to increase that number, you’ve got to get the statute changed,” Stahl said. “The formula was done in order to convince the General Assembly in the future that there are staffing needs in the districts.”
The AOC was able to permit the October hires in Wake and Durham because a hiring freeze that began in May saved about $3 million – a big chunk of the $13 million in cuts the legislature demanded from the Judicial Department last spring.
Cline said the Durham DA’s office is particularly short on assistant district attorneys who prosecute violent and sexual felonies. ADAs Stormy Ellis, Jan Paul, David Saacks and Phyllis Turner all left Cline’s office this year. Angela Garcia-Lamarca is on maternity leave at least until next year.
Cline and the remaining qualified ADAs, Mitch Garrell and Jim Dornfried, also have to handle new motions related to the Racial Justice Act and problems at the State Bureau of Investigation.
“There are worse off,” said Stahl. “But if I was sitting in [Cline’s] seat, I’d probably think it was pretty bad.”
Cline said the hiring freeze has forced her to assign serious cases to inexperienced attorneys for the discovery phase, where lawyers share evidence about a case. She is hoping that will buy time to hire enough lawyers to actually try the many murder cases on her docket.
“I’m trying to train some people to do murder cases so we can be sure that we can continue to try cases,” she said. “I don’t want the victims’ families in these cases to feel that the district attorney’s office is not going to pursue these cases with all the professionalism and thoroughness that we did before.”
The Crime Cabinet meets every two months. Several years ago, the group worked to ensure all offenders charged with a crime would be fingerprinted upon booking at the Durham County jail. The cabinet is currently examining the problem of witness intimidation in the courthouse and may propose penalties for enactment by the General Assembly.
jesse.deconto@newsobserver.com or 919-932-8760
Published Wed, Sep 15, 2010 05:44 AM
Modified Tue, Sep 14, 2010 08:17 PM
