Jury trials on rebound in District Court
DA: more seasoned staff tries more cases
Jury trials are back with a vengeance.
After a significant decrease last year, the number of felony criminal trials heard by jurors in El Paso County is on a record-setting pace so far this year.
In the first six months of 2010, there were 89 felony jury trials in 4th Judicial District Court, according to statistics kept by Jury Commissioner Dennis McKinney. That’s up from 47 trials for the first half of 2009, an increase of 89 percent.
Over the 12-month period ending July 1, there have been a total of 161 jury trials. That surpasses the previous peak year of 2007, when juries heard 146 felony trials.
“Our people are working awfully hard,” said 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May, who took over the office in January 2009.
Last July, when asked to explain the relative lull in criminal jury trials, May cited a number of factors including budget cuts and a younger, less experienced staff. He also said his first six months was not enough time to discern a trend.
Now with a year of training, mentoring and experience, that same staff is taking a greater number of felony charges to trial, he said. He also cited a poor economy with cutting down on staff turnover, leading to more stability.
Last year, May said he required young prosecutors handling misdemeanors to do at least 15 county court trials plus one appeal and log 15 hours of riding along with police before they could move up to trying felonies at the District Court level.
He said prosecutors also are taking a tougher line on some cases. As a result, there have been more trials this year involving the Special Victims Unit, which prosecutes sexual assaults and crimes against children, May said.
May credited his staff with the increase. Doing jury trials requires extra effort, with prosecutors routinely preparing on the weekends prior to trial. A beginning deputy district attorney is paid about $47,000-a-year.
“My people don’t get extra pay when they come in on weekends,” he said.
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