SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County Criminal District Attorney Joe Gonzales believes shifting cash round his finances will lend a hand his division to cut its backlog of 6,083 yet-to-be-indicted prison instances by one-third or extra, despite problems maintaining sufficient prosecutors on team of workers.
And even though an inside e mail bought by presentations a department leader chastising lawyers for no longer doing sufficient paintings, Gonzales says his team of workers is operating arduous.
Bexar County Commissioners agreed Tuesday to permit Gonzales to spend $295,000 in unused investment for 6 vacant positions to pay prosecutors who volunteer for additonal paintings making ready instances for a grand jury. The so-called “High Risk Intake Team” would focal point on violent crimes, repeat offenders, and instances in particular highlighted by police or prosecutors.
“I think if this is approved, we can comfortably expect to be able to resolve 2,000 to 2,500 cases of the 6,000,” Gonzales instructed commissioners prior to they licensed his request with out dissent on a voice vote.
Gonzales stated the plan is transient and will likely be revisited in six months.
It’s a plan with roots in each the DA’s combat to stay his workplace staffed and public sparring with San Antonio Police Chief William McManus over a spate of shootings of 5 SAPD officials wherein the suspects had prison histories.
A 6th officer shot himself in an incident round the similar time, which additionally led to officials taking pictures and killing a suspected automobile burglar they had been chasing.
Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg introduced they’d convey legislation enforcement and prosecutors in combination to talk about answers. Gonzales stated that is one in every of them.
The district lawyer additionally stated the present backlog is not up to the 8,639 instances he inherited when he took workplace in January 2019. He attributed backlog problems to a huge building up in how a lot proof is submitted for instances, problems moving that proof between incompatible and out of date programs, and prosecutor shortages.
“This plan is about helping us to fund that gap from the vacant positions because we’re never going to be able to fully get in front of this when we have the amount of vacancies that we have,” First Assistant DA Christian Henricksen instructed commissioners.
Though Gonzales stated he’s recently simplest down “13 to 15 lawyers,” his workplace has had a median of 20 vacant assistant district lawyer positions each month since August 2022, in accordance to his presentation.
He thanked commissioners for the raises within the not too long ago handed county finances, which he stated has helped the quantity of prosecutor turnover inside of his workplace stage off.
But whilst Gonzales put a lot of the blame for his staffing problems Tuesday on “burnout,” a Investigates record in March discovered a lot of former staff teeing off concerning the “hostile and toxic” paintings setting.
An Oct. 5 e mail bought by and showed via a public information request confirmed the pinnacle of the very division the plan is meant to lend a hand, the Intake and Grand Jury Division, reprimanding her group for no longer doing sufficient paintings.
Division Chief Emily Angulo instructed the 26 other folks at the e mail chain that the September statistics confirmed “many of you did not come close to doing the amount of work that you should be doing on a monthly basis in intake.”
Angulo referenced the plan to allocate investment for lawyers to paintings time beyond regulation to paintings with the backlog and stated, “It does not help the argument…when some of you are not keeping up with the minimum.”
“Just to reiterate, in case some of you missed the last intake meeting, being on vacation is not an excuse for your stats to plummet,” she wrote. “You need to take that into consideration for how much you are working the rest of the month. Whether that means taking work home, coming in early, staying late or coming in on the weekends, the work has to get done.”
requested Gonzales on Tuesday whether or not the tradition of the DA’s workplace can also be contributing to turnover.
The DA stated Angulo can be sending a commentary concerning the e mail.
“So I’m going to give her an opportunity to respond to any questions that you have about that. But I will tell you that our staff works hard. There are some people that are workaholics. And this chief is an example of a workaholic. But we have to have a life balance — a life-work balance — and we have to recognize that.”
Angulo launched the next commentary later Tuesday afternoon via a DA spokesman:
“I authored the email to Intake prosecutors regarding their September disposition rates. It was sent to our Intake prosecutors to ensure that we continually do our best work. The email was not meant to disparage. On the contrary, it was meant to motivate and to increase the Intake Division’s output.
“Not surprisingly, prosecutors accepted the challenge and, in fact, increased their productivity.
“As a result, a follow-up email was sent thanking them for their renewed efforts and expressing my appreciation for their work. I am privileged to work alongside such a great team every day. Working with such a dedicated staff has kept me in the DA’s Office for 24 years.
“We are a team of professionals here at the DA’s office. We do not shy away from holding ourselves internally accountable for a low or celebrating our highs together. We recognize that we must always put our best efforts forward in assisting victims of crime and serving the interests of justice.”
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