Despite a decrease in felony filings, trial costs are up and the prosecutor’s office wants more money in the 2011-12 budget, Prosecutor Art Curtis told county commissioners last week.
“We know it’s not a good time to be asking for money, but we have a couple of real problem areas,” said Curtis, who will be leaving office at the end of the year after serving seven four-year terms.
The 2010-11 prosecutor’s budget was $22 million.
The office prosecutes all felonies, as well as misdemeanors, committed in unincorporated Clark County.
While the criminal unit takes up the biggest chunk of the budget ($16.9 million, up from $13.5 million in 2005-06 despite decreasing caseloads), the office also has a child support enforcement unit, a victims assistance unit and a civil unit with attorneys who advise the county.
Curtis said he would like an additional $42,000 in the 2011-12 budget for trial costs, as well as an additional $208,000 for the victims assistance unit.
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Commissioners have to adopt the next two-year budget by the end of the year. Last Wednesday’s work session was a time for Curtis to explain why his department should get more money out of a general fund consistently described as in “stable yet fragile condition.”
All elected officials are getting their chance to meet with commissioners as part of the budget process.
Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Denny Hunter said defense attorneys are driving up trial costs by challenging the state’s evidence and bringing in more expert witnesses, which forces the state to hire its own experts. Defense attorneys have to make the motions, Hunter said, to provide adequate representation.
Hunter said another expense has been in sex abuse cases, due to the “transient nature” of victims who move out of the area but then have to be flown in, often with a parent or guardian, for a pretrial interview or trial.
Curtis said he can’t anticipate what type of cases will be filed or which ones will go to trial.
“We could have an aggravated murder tomorrow, where some wacko kills a bunch of people,” and then the defense will want to have expensive medical experts examine the defendant, Curtis said.
In 2009, the office resolved 2,191 felony cases without going to trial (the majority ended in guilty pleas, with 186 dismissals and 152 deferred prosecutions) and took 74 cases to trial.
Curtis said defense attorneys can go to a judge and ask for authorization to have an expert appointed without having a hearing during which a prosecutor could argue the expert isn’t necessary.
“We’re left out in the cold,” Curtis said.
The county also pays for indigent defense.
Clark County has cut its general fund budget three times for a total of 22 percent, or $62 million, since its peak in the 2007-2008 budget.
Last year’s cuts included slicing $1.2 million from the prosecutor’s budget and $700,000 from the indigent defense budget, which for 2009-10 was $9 million.
Curtis said he was bothered that commissioners then restored $500,000 to the indigent defense fund without consulting him.
He suggested that defense attorneys are abusing the system.
“Maybe the county is being taken advantage of,” Curtis said. “It just doesn’t seem fair.”
Curtis provided commissioners with a list of his office’s most expensive cases.
Prosecutors spent the most money on Michael Schuurmans, who killed his sister. After two doctors at Western State Hospital (who typically testify for the state) said Schuurmans met the narrow legal definition of insanity, the prosecutor’s office hired Dr. Kenneth Muscatel, who typically testifies for the defense and gets portrayed by prosecutors as a hired gun.
A judge ruled that Schuurmans was not guilty by reason of insanity, and Schuurmans was ordered to be confined indefinitely at Western State Hospital.
The prosecutors paid $5,475 in that case, while indigent defense costs were $3,604.
