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| DA, Sheriff Seeking Additional Staff as Case Loads Continue to Grow By: Nick Altmire (nick@linkinglewiscounty.com) 07/13/17 04:30pm |
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Law committee this morning, lawmakers heard requests from both District Attorney Leanne Moser and Sheriff Michael Carpinelli seeking additional resources to deal with an influx of criminal cases. The District Attorney's Office is still seeking the board's approval to hire a second Asistant District Attorney. DA Moser first approached the committee back in April, when she explained that the average rule of thumb is to have one ADA per 10,000 residents. Lewis County has one ADA, Mark Lemieux, for a population of just under 27,000 people. The only other county in New York State with just one ADA is Hamilton, which has a population of less than 5,000 people, DA Moser told the board at the April meeting. Schuyler County, with a population around 18,500 has 4 1/2 ADAs and Seneca County has 4 ADAs for a population of around 33,000 people, the district attorney said at the time. The county has 19 courts in its system, including 17 justice courts across the towns and villages. The ADA currently travels to each justice court at least once per month for DA night, where residents are able to make plea deals to take care of traffic tickets and other matters. The District Attorney told the committee this morning that her office has seen a steady increase in the number of cases over the past few years. Regarding the total number of felony cases handled through the DA's Office, 123 were opened for all of 2016, while year-to-date for 2017 (January 01 - July 12) has seen more than 86 cases opened. When looking at just felony drug cases opened, there were 21 in 2015, 47 in 2016 and already 41 so far in 2017. The office has opened 14 felony Unlawful Manufacture of Methamphetamine cases so far this year, already exceeding the 11 opened in 2015 and close to the 15 opened all of last year. The office has been averaging about 20 new misdemeanor cases each week. DA Moser told the committee that there have been 8 confirmed deaths from opioid overdoses her office has handled so far this year, with 2 more suspected opioid overdose deaths pending lab results. That is more than a 100% increase from the 4 her office handled all of last year. The DA, who also functions as the Lewis County Coroner, noted that coroner duties have also been consuming more of her time. The coroner is required to respond to any unattended deaths occurring in the county. In April the DA reported that so far this year the office has handled 34 unattended deaths. This compares to 57 handled in 2016, 50 in 2015 and 41 in 2014. For perspective, the District Attorney's Office 2017 budget of $476,712.00 is offset by $71,189.00 in DA Salary Assistance from the State and another $29,200 from the State's Aid to Prosecution Fund. This makes the county's budgeted amount for the DA's Office $375,323.00. The amount budgeted under the Public Defender line of the 2017 County budget is $391,171.00. While many of the felony and misdemeanor cases in the county are handled through public defense, most traffic infractions and other cases the DA's office is required to handle are not represented by the public defender. The current ADA has a salary of $61,710.00 included in the 2017 DA's budget, giving an idea of what an additional ADA salary may be. Committee Chairman Jerry King told the District Attorney to provide some additional data, and tabled the discussion to the next meeting of the committee in August. The full Lewis County Board of Legislators were invited to sit-in on the committee meeting, to hear a proposal from Lewis County Sheriff Michael Carpinelli and Sheriff's Office Investigator Edward Amelio requesting a second investigator for the office. Legislators Phil Hathway, Larry Dolhof, Rocky Fawcett, Andrea Moroughan and Chairman Mike Tabolt joined committee members Jerry King and Greg Kulzer for the meeting. The Sheriff told the committee that previous to his administration, the Sheriff's Office always had two investigators on staff. In 2012, after one of the investigators retired, the position was never refilled or included into future county budgets. "I'm only asking for what the other Sheriffs have had to work with." Sheriff Carpinelli said. Investigator Amelio, who took over the position held by now-retired longtime Investigator Dale Roberts on March 1st, agreed that a second investigator would "help immensely." He added a second investigator is needed just to keep up on the current case load, and if the county wanted to proactively tackle the drug problem a third investigator would likely be needed. Investigator Amelio said he has been assigned 45 new cases since taking over on March 1st, with cases inherited from the previous investigator not even included. Many he has not even had time to address he said. Some cases have required 40+ hours of investigatory work just on one case. Investigator Amelio provided the board members with a breakdown of the cases by category, ranging from sex offenses to drug cases to fraud. Investigator Amelio said an investigator is required to perform a number of tasks, including attending autopsies, logging and packing evidence, retrieving evidence from crime labs and hospitals, doing background checks, following up on drug tips, reviewing audio and video recordings and other data evidence, along with a variety of other duties. The investigator is also responsible for managing and maintaining the evidence room. "There are two types of policing, proactive and reactive," Sheriff Carpinelli told the board. "We are not doing proactive, meaning we are not able to try and prevent crime, we're responding after a crime has already occurred. That's a sad way to do police work, we need to be able to be proactive not just reactive," he said. "You've been telling us for awhile you need more help," Legislator Phil Hathway told the Sheriff. "Then we did the Bonadio Group study, which agrees with what you have been saying for the most part. I think it's time we start believing you," Legislator Hathway said. Committee Chairman Jerry King told the Sheriff that this was an informational session, and no decision would be made today, but that legislators now had the knowledge gained from the meeting to get together at a later time to discuss further and make a decision. |
