By Steve Thorpe
Legal News
Detroit’s 36th District Court faces increasing “no shows” by staffers from the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office as a budget battle between Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano heats up.
Chief Judge Kenneth King says his court is faced with delays and dismissals and he’s unable to do anything about it.
“I’m not a player in this conflict. I’m caught in the middle and I have no say, and neither do the other district courts in Wayne County,” King said Tuesday in an interview with the Legal News.
He also pointed to the ripple effect on the finances of the already cash-strapped City of Detroit of reduced staffing in a key part of his court.
“The traffic and ordinance docket is by far our busiest docket and it’s the one that generates revenue for the City of Detroit,” said King. “The Wayne County Prosecutor plays a role in that because about 30 to 40 percent of those traffic tickets that come through the court fall under their jurisdiction. The prosecutor indicated that she’s unable to send anyone to do our misdemeanor docket. Without having them there those cases will be either adjourned or dismissed, depending on the stage of the process.”
Worthy, whose office did not return phone calls Tuesday, issued a three-page press release Friday afternoon saying that she was being forced to lay off 22 attorneys, three investigators and a weekend clerk. The court is now seeing the impact of those cutbacks in the form of fewer completed cases and less revenue.
King says that a Tuesday morning meeting with Worthy didn’t encourage him that progress had been made in the dispute. He did say he now has a better perspective of why Worthy is withholding some services of her office.
“I do now have a better understanding of why she can’t send anyone over here,” King said. “What I hadn’t understood was that a lot of her APA (Assistant Prosecuting Attorney) positions are grant funded and the APAs have to work in the particular areas (of the grant). For instance, auto theft. She receives a grant for auto theft and has a designated number of people to work in that unit. She can’t pull those APAs to work anywhere else or she loses the grant.”
No county prosecutors were in court Monday for traffic and ordinance violations, which are big revenue generators. Although most of those cases are handled by city attorneys, many would normally be handled by the prosecutor’s office.
King said that Worthy told him that the situation may force her to not supply prosecutors for more serious crimes.
“She also said it could affect her ability to do preliminary examinations on lower level felonies including home invasions,” he said.
In her press release, Worthy accused Ficano of creating a dangerous situation for county residents.
“We have been warning the County for months that any reduction in staff would cause drastic actions to be taken and severely impair our mandated functions,” she said. “Robert Ficano has taken the irresponsible action of laying off people who work hard to prosecute criminals in my jurisdiction. The effect of these layoffs will affect the safety of the men, women and children in this County.”
The county has responded by saying that, although Worthy’s budget has been cut in line with other departments, she has discretion in how those funds are allocated.
Attempts to reach the County Executive’s office for comment Tuesday morning were unsuccessful.
Worthy’s budget feud with Ficano has taken on personal dimensions at times, with a spokeswoman from Ficano’s office accusing Worthy of “scare tactics” and Worthy complaining that Ficano has not restored her salary to the level that she says they agreed upon after an earlier budget cutback.
At one point Worthy even sued the county. On Oct. 1, 2012, the first day of the fiscal year, she filed suit saying the $25.6 million budget approved by county commissioners wouldn’t be enough to properly run the prosecutor’s office. Worthy has stated in the past that she needs at least $34 to properly run her department.
King hopes that progress will be made soon in the budget dispute and that previous staffing levels of prosecutors will be restored.
“I hope they reach a resolution fairly soon,” he said. “Although we’re talking about misdemeanors at this point, we have some pretty serious things affected. Operating while intoxicated, driving while license suspended to name just two. Those are cases that need to be adjudicated.”
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