DA ceases to go after low-level criminals.Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard Petty theft and about 100 other nonviolent misdemeanors - including forgery forgery, in art forgery, in art, the false claim to authenticity for a work of art. The Nature of Forgery Because the provenance of works of art is seldom clear and because their origin is often judged by means of subtle factors, art , credit card fraud Credit card fraud is a wide-ranging term for theft and fraud committed using a credit card or any similar payment mechanism as a fraudulent source of funds in a transaction. The purpose may be to obtain goods without paying, or to obtain unauthorized funds from an account. and car break-ins - won't be prosecuted by the Lane County district attorney starting today. With about 150 new criminal cases filed each week, something has to give in order for the county's 21 criminal prosecutors to handle higher-priority violent crimes, Lane County District Attorney Doug Harcleroad said Tuesday. Prosecutors will focus on violent crimes, domestic violence, felony felony (fĕl`ənē), any grave crime, in contrast to a misdemeanor, that is so declared in statute or was so considered in common law. property crimes involving burglary and losses of $750 or more and drug dealing, he said. The reduction in petty crime prosecution is nearly identical to a plan Harcleroad instituted a year ago to cope with county budget cutting. After Harcleroad temporarily retired from his fifth term last summer, District Attorney Alex Gardner Alexander Gardner (April 28, 1861 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada - June 18, 1926) is a former Canadian major league catcher. He played in his only game on May 10, 1884. He went 0-3 at the plate. External links
Harcleroad, who returned to office in January, acknowledged that his latest policy change may rub residents the wrong way, but he said it comes down to setting priorities with limited resources. He noted that Gardner's plan also reduced prosecution for probation violations and felony drug possession - cuts that will remain in place under the new plan. Gardner returned to the position of prosecutor when Harcleroad returned from retirement. "I don't like this either," Harcleroad said. "Currently, we have only 21 lawyers in the criminal division, which is the lowest number we have had in 20 years. We're having to make tough decisions about what are the most important things to do." He said he is not aware of any data or study about the impact of last year's reduced prosecution of property crimes that might serve to predict how the public might be affected by the new reduction. Harcleroad also would not speculate about the cause of continuously rising caseloads, other than noting that 400 law enforcement officers feed their work into his office. However, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Mortimore said some of the increase is driven by criminals who are released from jail because of overcrowding overcrowding overcrowding of animal accommodation. Many countries now publish codes of practice which define what the appropriate volumetric allowances should be for each species of animal when they are housed indoors. Breaches of these codes is overcrowding. and who continue to commit new crimes after release. The greatest impact of the cuts probably will fall on Eugene, where city ordinances do not provide authority for city prosecutors to take many misdemeanors through municipal court. Springfield may feel little impact because its ordinances allow prosecution of misdemeanors in municipal court. Rural cities without municipal courts also could feel the impact, Harcleroad said. But rural residents may notice no difference because the sheriff's office long ago stopped investigating low-level property crimes because of budget shortfalls, he added. Before making the new cuts, Harcleroad said he conferred con·fer v. con·ferred, con·fer·ring, con·fers v.tr. 1. To bestow (an honor, for example): conferred a medal on the hero; conferred an honorary degree on her. with supervisors of some police agencies and modified his plan to meet their needs. For example, Harcleroad will continue to prosecute To follow through; to commence and continue an action or judicial proceeding to its ultimate conclusion. To proceed against a defendant by charging that person with a crime and bringing him or her to trial. people who illegally carry a concealed weapon concealed weapon n. a weapon, particularly a handgun, which is kept hidden on one's person, or under one's control (in a glove compartment or under a car seat). or who give false information to police. As in last year's plan, exceptions will be made for offenders who are unusually cruel, pick on vulnerable victims, threaten violence or run up a string of misdemeanor misdemeanor, in law, a minor crime, in contrast to a felony. At common law a misdemeanor was a crime other than treason or a felony. Although it might be a grave offense, it did not affect the feudal bond or take away the offender's property. By the 19th cent. crimes. Police supervisors will be able to request prosecution in those cases, Harcleroad said. "If we need to target somebody, we are going to target them," he said. The reduction is part of the overall erosion in local public safety programs that ranges from inadequate reform programs for juveniles up to a 340-bed county jail that has 119 beds vacant because of budget constraints A Budget Constraint represents the combinations of goods and services that a consumer can purchase given current prices and his income. Consumer theory uses the concepts of a budget constraint and a preference ordering to analyze consumer choices. , Harcleroad said. He said he and other officials are working to persuade community leaders and the public to form a public safety service district to raise revenue for specific enforcement services. "It's about the only viable solution," he said. "The whole justice system in Lane County is badly deteriorated." |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion