Budget cuts force courts to interrupt prosecutions.

Byline: BILL BISHOP The Register-Guard

For four months starting in March, Lane County Circuit Court - and all other state courts - will stop processing criminal cases for car break-ins, shoplifting, forgery and other thefts of less than $750 and civil small claims as part of statewide budget cutting.

The courts, including appellate, tax and circuit courts, also will close on Fridays during the four months and all court processes will be slowed by employee layoffs and work hour reductions under orders by Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Carson.

Carson outlined his plan in a recent memo to court employees across Oregon. The state Justice Department made the orders public this week.

The cutbacks are the first announced to meet an $8 million budget reduction for court operations mandated in the Legislature's fifth special session. The chief justice and local court officials may order more cuts, depending on the state's December revenue forecast, the result of a Jan. 28 referendum on a temporary income tax increase and action by next year's Legislature.

Prosecutors and judges don't yet know the full impact of the unprecedented order suspending misdemeanor case processing. As planned, any such criminal case filed by prosecutors will languish without trial dates, pre-trial hearings or other action during the four months. It's also unclear how courts will catch up on the backlog.

The district attorney filed 3,256 misdemeanor cases last year in Lane County involving 5,486 separate charges. A vast majority of those involved property crimes - the kind of cases that will be delayed starting next March, said Kent Mortimore, the county's chief deputy district attorney.

"This seems really unfair to crime victims," he said. "A lot of those are cases where victims expect prompt prosecution - not only for punishment of the offender, but for restitution."

How the court, with a reduced staff, could catch up with a four-month backlog once the moratorium is lifted is another unknown, Mortimore said.

While the cutbacks are a benchmark for the current budget situation, Mortimore noted that the Legislature and the state's voters will have a role in determining the eventual extent of service reductions in courts and other state services.

In his memo, Carson said the closure and service reductions are being delayed until March to get a clearer picture of the eventual court budget for the remainder of the fiscal year and to allow time to plan for the cuts.

"This process promises to be by far the most difficult test Oregon's courts have ever faced," Carson said.

In Lane County, the full scope of service reductions and layoffs among the court's 113 employees won't be known until the state finance picture becomes more clear after the January vote.

Judge Mary Ann Bearden, presiding judge of Lane County Circuit Court, said administrators are beginning to formulate plans for the cuts ordered by Carson.

Employees already are worried that the cuts will seriously hamper their role in helping people resolve disputes, Bearden said.

For the larger community, the judge said she worries that delaying the prosecution of petty offenses could bring a sharp increase in crime.

"The message on the street will be: `They're not prosecuting these crimes.' It's a dangerous message to have out there," Bearden said. "It's a real quality-of-life issue."