ASSISTANT PROSECUTORS SCALED BACK
Friday, May 6th, 2011 -- 11:23 AM
Another battle between Gov. Scott Walker and a state employees union could lead to delays for court cases getting charged and tried.Earlier this week, the 350-member Association of State Prosecutors overwhelming rejected a proposal by the Governor?s Office of Employee Relations that would have forced assistant DAs to take 6 unpaid furlough days by July 2.
The result will be assistant prosecutors will be scaled back to 4 days a week through the end of the fiscal year.
This is bad news, according to Clark County District Attorney Darwin Zwieg. While it doesn?t affect his personal schedule (he?s an elected official and not part of the union), his only assistant, Dick Lewis, will be scaled back to 80%.
"The state gives us a chart as to where we are in terms of caseloads and the number of prosecutors," Zwieg says, "we have always been slightly above the median."
"It's not like we're twiddling our thumbs and looking at the ceiling. We've got plenty to do and if Dick's time is reduced, that's going to create some problems."
While the volume of cases fluctuates from year to year, the complexity has increased.
"The law develops on a continuing basis. There may be this motion, or that motion needs to be heard that maybe didn't exist five years ago," he explains.
Zwieg says the action seems inconsistent with the administration?s insistence that they want to reduce crime and protect victims. He says victims don't want to see cases "drag on."
"Particularly for reasons such as a prosecutor not being available," he adds.
Zwieg, a Democrat, has served as a prosecutor for 32 years; he was appointed Clark County?s District Attorney in 1980 and has been reelected ever since.
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