Key solicitor posts may be axed
No state funds currently allocated for prosecutors for domestic violence, DUI
By Schuyler Kropf
Charleston and Berkeley counties are in danger of losing their criminal domestic violence prosecutors if state budget cuts continue on their current path.
Also on the chopping block is the prosecutor in charge of going after drunken drivers in Charleston, one of the deadliest driving counties in the state.
Even more alarming is that as the economy sours, the frequency of both crime categories is predicted to get worse.
While 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson's office is facing a host of other cuts, no state money is being reallocated for the circuit's two CDV prosecutors, who take cases that include spousal abuse. Combined, they see hundreds of violators a year.
Also not being funded is Charleston's DUI prosecutor, who is responsible for following all sorts of DUI cases, including those with fatalities.
The cuts are coming from the General Assembly, which funds solicitors in the state. To save money, lawmakers are eliminating money that previously was restricted to specific areas, such as CDV and DUI, while keeping general staff in place.
Perhaps most affected by the change will be criminal domestic violence incidents. Several times a month, Charleston County cases are heard in a centralized magistrate's court in North Charleston.
Advocates say the court is effective because sentences can be tailored to require offenders to report back regularly to discuss their progress as they seek counseling.
If the positions are lost, it doesn't mean that prosecutions will come to a standstill. But it will mean prosecutors specifically assigned to pursue these crimes will disappear. In CDV court, law enforcement officials would become the prosecutors, instead of an experienced attorney.
Wilson said Wednesday that she's been meeting with local elected officials to work on alternative funding if the state money disappears. The response to sharing the cost has been receptive, she said.
An issue, she said, is that the money situation seems to shift regularly. "Nobody knows what hand you're dealt because it keeps changing," she said.
One safety valve Wilson is pursuing is going after grants that would keep the prosecutors in place.
Other areas of the Charleston courthouse are likewise feeling the effects of downward budget concerns. Charleston Clerk of Court Julie Armstrong said this week that as the workload increases for everyone, her office still has mandated responsibilities.
Among them are ensuring that juries are available for all civil and criminal trials, and the federal requirement that child-support payments and wage garnishments go forward in short speed.
That alone is a tall order, she said, as more than $34 million in support payments move through the county each year.
Reach Schuyler Kropf at skropf@postandcourier.com or 937-5551.
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Comments
postman01 (anonymous) says...
Since the "criminal domestic violence prosecutors" are FAILURES since CDM is rapant anyway, they should be punished with dismissal. This shows how UNIMPORTANT they have always been because they are getting the ax first and they have never even begun to make the slightest headway towards solving this problem. While I abhor truly serious violence of any kind, I also think that it is time for the massive and deluded nonsense that has infected our culture and governance, including the imbecile idea that government can stop people from having conflicts in their own home, to be cleansed. This is a blessing of this crisis. Even in government, the UNIMPORTANT NON PRODUCING PARASITES are being shown the door. A very healthy development.
And, as for our maturity as a society, since government can't possibly solve the CDM problem, we will be forced to quit kidding ourselves and look elsewhere for answers. After all, obsessively looking in the wrong place will never produce results.
February 26, 2009 at 10:15 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
postman01 (anonymous) says...
We don't need a special prosecutor for DUI, either. It's the job of the police to catch drunk drivers and gather evidence. Any competent lawyer who is working as a prosecutor can effectively prosecute any case, including DUI, if the police have done their job properly. This is something the police and government can do something effective about.
Correction: I meant to use the acronym CDV, not CDM in the previous post
February 26, 2009 at 10:19 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eyfigueroa (anonymous) says...
If perpetrators of CDM, both male and females AREN'T fully prosecuted & incarcerated then how will the cycle be stopped.
No, not all cases can be adjudicated, but there have been lives saved with the prosecution of such cases.
We can all debate how or why CDM occurs and why individuals stay in such situations, however life is life and there should be ATTEMPTS at saving them.
February 26, 2009 at 10:20 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
wjhamilton3 (anonymous) says...
An awful lot of CDV cases are junk. People who should be going to divorce court think the Police Dept. and Prosecutor's office can handle their divorce, support and custody issues for free. They exaggerate or make up allegations until their paperwork is accepted, then sit back and let the state hammer their husband or wife into pulp. Over the long hall, the junk gets tossed out by prosecutors and judges. It's massively wasteful, but despite several efforts to create procedures or rules which will do the work automatically, it still takes a Judge or Prosecutor to throw out the junk and they can't do that until they know what is going on. That takes time and money.
We either spend the money to get at the facts or stand by and let people beat each other in front of their kids. SC has one of the highest rates of Domestic violence in the US.
However, schools, libraries and police officers are also important. We're not going to be able to afford it all.
February 26, 2009 at 10:59 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lillycollette (anonymous) says...
"An awful lot of CDV cases are junk."
Well, AMEN to that. However, it is lawyer created junk. Pro se litigants are rarely if ever allowed to take this route.
February 28, 2009 at 6:24 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lillycollette (anonymous) says...
[T]he Charleston courthouse are likewise-FEELING THE EFFECTS OF-downward budget concerns. Charleston Clerk of Court Julie Armstrong said this week that as the workload increases for everyone, her office still has mandated responsibilities. Among them are [:] federal requirement that child-support payments and wage garnishments go forward in short speed. That alone is a tall order, she said, as more than $34 million in support payments move through the county each year.
==================================================
One of those federal mandates of which Julie speaks is to make sure that paternity has actually been adjudicated and child support has been lawfully ordered.
Yet Julie knowingly collected an obviously fraudulent 65% monthly garnishment of a disabled man's Social Security disability income for a "bastard of an ethnicity which he could never have sired by a woman he was never married to".
And it all done on no more than verbal allegations of officers of the court that the victim had verbally agreed to pay up (to avoid indefinite jailing on contempt until he did pay up).
I think that everyone considering robbery should use this same EXCUSE:
My victim agreed to getting robbed (to avoid getting shot).
Julie Armstrong's remarks are a-MORAL OUTRAGE-! HOW DARE SHE even speak about mandated federal responsibilities when she has willfully and wantonly ignored them for criminal profit!
I saw what you did Julie.
February 28, 2009 at 7:32 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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