CRIME: Felony filings have been on the rise
MARK LINDQUIST; Tacoma
Re: “Court backlog down to ’06 level” (TNT, 8-17).
Thank you for the article on our success in reducing the backlog of felonies pending in Pierce County Superior Court. However, I must correct the potentially misleading sub-headline, “Pending cases drop, but fewer cases were filed.”
The number of felonies filed by the prosecutor’s office in 2009 has not gone down. In fact, the prosecutor’s office has filed more felony cases since Jan. 1, 2009, than during the same period in 2008.
Several factors affect the backlog, but courtroom availability is the most significant. When courtrooms are available, defendants either plead guilty or go to trial. Either way, the case is resolved. In the prosecutor’s office, we appreciate the judges who have stepped forward so that some of our most serious cases are assigned directly to their courtrooms. They’ve taken on the hard work of managing a criminal caseload.
We look forward to expanding the project to include more judges so that we can continue to reduce the backlog and thereby increase access to justice in both the criminal and civil arenas. (Lindquist is chief criminal deputy in the Pierce County prosecuting attorney’s office.)
