Grant County prosecutor's staffing request declined

County preparing for $4.5 million shortfall

EPHRATA - Grant County Prosecutor John Knodell planned Monday to ask Grant County commissioners to include seven prosecutors, two private investigators and eight secretaries in next year's budget.

Before Monday's budget hearing, Knodell said two prosecutors would be used in juvenile court. The remaining attorneys would handle cases in district and superior courts.

"We'll do better when we're on parity with the public defenders," he said.

At the hearing, he said his focus was hiring more staff for juvenile cases. He also said two new district court attorneys would bring more money to the county by handling drug forfeiture cases.

But Grant County Commissioner Richard Stevens told Knodell the county was experiencing a $4.5 million shortfall.

As a result, commissioners are asking all departments to trim 5 percent from their budget requests, he said.

Stevens also said the prosecutor's office has enough attorneys as compared to the public defender's staff because there are seven defense attorneys designated for special cases when there's more than one defendant per case, he said.

There are 11 attorneys in the prosecutor's office and 23 contracted public defense attorneys.

Moses Lake Mayor Ron Covey, Wilson Creek Mayor Kathy Bohnet, Grant County Sheriff Frank DeTrolio, Grant County deputies and police officers from Moses Lake and Warden were also at the hearing.

Some signed up to provide testimony but later learned that testimony isn't taken during departmental budget hearings.

After the meeting, Covey said he supported Knodell's request.

"The system's not working, things have to change," Covey said.

Knodell's staffing request of $639,515 comes after the Association of Grant County Cities and Towns agreed Nov. 29 to ask Grant County for two more prosecutors to fight juvenile and gang crime.

Warden Mayor Roldan Capetillo said he was frustrated with juveniles returning to town so quickly after being arrested for spray-painting gang graffiti.

At the association's meeting, Knodell said judges could hand out stiffer sentences.

Superior Court Judges John Antosz, Evan Sperline and Kenneth Jorgensen responded in a guest editorial Thursday in the Columbia Basin Herald disagreeing with Knodell about sentencing.

The judges claimed Knodell's office mostly quit filing misdemeanor juvenile cases including theft and property damage and possession of alcohol and marijuana.

Knodell's office filed 171 juvenile criminal cases this year, as compared to 396 cases in 2006 and 586 cases in 2005, the judges wrote.

Knodell said Monday his office's policy is to only file felony cases because he doesn't have enough staff and the number of filings went down, he said.

He said most of the 171 cases filed in 2007 were felony cases, but didn't have a specific number available.

He also said fewer continuances should be granted.

"We're wasting a lot of time in juvenile court," he said.