Criminal prosecutors are outnumbered by public defenders in La Plata County, and if elected officials want to maintain proper checks and balances in the judicial system, they must fund another position in the
Prosecutors handle more cases, yet have fewer attorneys to handle county court cases, said Assistant District Attorney Christian Champagne, who is running unopposed to become district attorney in January. County court prosecutors handle about 1,500 cases per year.
“That’s simply not sustainable,” he told La Plata County commissioners. “We’re getting overrun. We need an attorney in there.”
Commissioners seemed receptive to his plea for more funding, but finding an extra $81,000 is next to impossible. Revenue is expected to be down 13.6 percent next year countywide, meaning most departments are facing cuts.
“It’s a tough sell. I totally recognize the budget constraints you guys have right now,” Champagne said.
The district attorney’s office hasn’t grown in recent years because of space constraints, not budgetary issues, he said. But the office will move next year from the Old Main Post Office building, where employees work in the hallway, to new offices at the Courthouse.
“That limiting factor is being removed from our department,” Champagne said. “We now have the room to expand, and desperately need to expand.”
The office has 10 lawyers compared with the public defender’s office’s 11 lawyers, but prosecutors handle a greater percentage of cases, because only indigent defendants qualify for public defenders. The public defender’s office is funded by state government.
The district attorney’s office is funded by the three counties it serves. The split is determined by the populations of each county, which means La Plata County pays 80.6 percent, Archuleta County pays 18.4 percent and San Juan County pays 1 percent.
Commissioners agreed to see what could be scraped together if the district attorney’s office would also go through its $2.5 million budget with a fine-tooth comb to see what revenue it could use to help fund a new position.
The office also plans to shop for professional liability insurance to help cover expenses in the event a prosecutor is sued or grieved, which occurred in 2014 and cost the office more than $40,000 to defend.
shane@durangoherald.com
