August 4, 2010 in City

Prosecutor hindered by cuts

Consultant finds no easy fix for backlog

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A consultant says he found no “aha” solution to a budget-driven slowdown in the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office.

“A budget cut of the size imposed upon the prosecutor’s office is bound to have serious repercussions, as it appears that it did,” longtime Florida prosecutor Randy McGruther reported.

McGruther, chief assistant state attorney for a five-county Florida judicial circuit, conducted a $5,000 study in May at the request of county commissioners and criminal justice consultant David Bennett.

Commissioners hoped McGruther would find ways to restore flagging efforts to keep offenders out of jail with supervised programs. A promising community corrections system began to unravel last fall when budgets were cut in the sheriff’s and prosecutor’s offices.

The system depends heavily on charging suspects within 72 hours – before state law requires them to be released.

Prosecutor Steve Tucker told commissioners he was able to keep up with arrests for a while in 2008 and 2009, but this year’s 11 percent cut in an “already lean” budget overwhelmed him.

McGruther’s report “states the obvious,” Tucker said in a written response last month.

Tucker didn’t participate in a July 20 conference call in which county commissioners discussed the report with McGruther, but Administrative Attorney Debby Kurbitz represented the prosecutor’s office.

Kurbitz, who is part of Tucker’s management team, took exception to McGruther’s recommendation to file charges within 72 hours even when attorneys feel they won’t have time to follow up.

Cases “don’t get any better sitting around,” and it’s unrealistic to wait for a lull, McGruther told Kurbitz.

In his written report, McGruther said there is “little imperative to process these cases” after they are placed on a back burner. Meanwhile, accused felons are released without court-ordered restrictions.

Kurbitz said defense attorneys would realize they have deputy prosecutors over a barrel if all cases were filed in 72 hours. They would start demanding better deals, and the prosecutor’s success rate would fall.

Kurbitz also rejected McGruther’s recommendation to organize secretaries into a “production line” instead of assigning one to every three attorneys. She said the office tried that approach and found it less efficient, in part because no one knew the location and status of files.

Modern computer systems should alleviate that problem, McGruther said. Still greater efficiency would be possible if information from police and other agencies was fed directly into the prosecutor’s case management software, he said.

Getting the county clerk to let some prosecutor’s employees lodge cases in Superior Court also could save time, McGruther suggested.

Some of his other ideas included consolidating six office locations or at least getting a common telephone switchboard, standardizing filing systems and using more volunteers.

Commissioners plan to continue their review of McGruther’s report but have only budgetary control over the prosecutor’s office.

Commissioners Mark Richard and Todd Mielke warmed to the idea of “one-time” expenditures to improve telephone and computer systems.

18 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  Orange on August 04 at 6:21 a.m.

  We all are. Deal with it. Or move on and let someone else who knows how.

• 

  liarsinnews on August 04 at 7:33 a.m.

  Steve Tucker spent too much time at the 19th hole before the budget tightening and did nothing about some serious cases in Spokane, what makes anyone think his do nothing stance will change? Look at the people who benefit from his looking the other way for the answer. Why does the death of Ms. Jo Savage in the River Park Square parking garage come to mind?

• 

  lewis8457 on August 04 at 8:13 a.m.

  With a good manager the work load can get done, but we don’t have a good manager instead we have a wanabe golf pro.

  Tucker couldn’t do the job and now it is someones else’s fault boo- hoo.

  He should be put on trial fr wasting the taxpayers money all these years.

  Next time you put your paycheck in the bank take a good look at it and think gee Tucker makes 14,000 a month for nothing.

• 

  Truth_and_Justice on August 04 at 1:09 p.m.

  @ Dick Adams

  Get over it Dick. Every agency that looked at the Savage case determined there was no crime. It was simply a tragic accident, period.

• 

  Ron_the_Cop on August 04 at 2:02 p.m.

  Truth and Justice,

  Respectfully I will have to disagree.

  There was never a complete and thorough criminal investigation done that would have followed the evidence wherever it would have led to its logical conclusion in the Savage homicide case. The feds never did such an investigation and in fact handed off their incomplete case file to Tucker to investigate and review under existing state law involving negligent homicide.

  The AG’s Office didn’t do an independent investigation either. They only reviewed the federal material that Tucker gave to them. This was a stacked deck. Tucker’s decision not to file was fallacious in that he had nothing really to review. Of course there was insufficient evidence because no one did their homework.

  There was never a federal grand jury investigation into the Savage case - one that reviewed evidence and/or heard testimony from key witnesses. I have personal knowledge that key witnesses were never summoned. What did occur is a federal grand jury did issue some subpoenas but there was never a criminal investigation. The feds have no jurisdiction in what in essence is a state manslaughter case. That’s why they gave what they had to Tucker to do the investigation and review.

  As for the 72 hour issue this is absurd and a complete waste of public resources, causes duplicate work on those who are released from custody because the charges aren’t filed on time and causes court case backlogs.

  Yes this isn’t entirely Tucker’s fault but he is the lead player and could have taken a leading role with the law enforcement agencies and the courts to mitigate this fiasco. Instead Tucker can’t be found on most days.

  We need a leader in this office and not one that just occupies this office and collects his check.

  See this post below:

  http://tinyurl.com/277pea9

  Former Sheriff Bamonte and I met with Dave Stevens a candidate for Spokane Co Prosecutor for three hours on Sunday. We have carefully evaluated all of the candidates for Spokane County Prosecutor with the exception of Steve Tucker the incumbent. It should be of no surprise that we’re actively campaigning against Tucker. Tucker has pulled another stunt claiming the support of Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich in his new campaign website

  http://reelectstevetucker.com/Home.html

  We have chosen to support Dave Stevens as we believe he has the fire in his belly to aggressively prosecute career criminals and to stop the revolving door involving the 72 hour arraignment fiasco that Tucker has not taken a leadership role to resolve with the leaders of the criminal justice system.

• 

  brianrbreen on August 04 at 2:50 p.m.

  Ron_the_Cop

  Since you and Tony are so adamant about finding someone to pursue your case against the “Cowles Gang”, and the both of you sat down on Sunday with Dave Stevens for three hours, I would find it hard to believe that your case against the “Cowles Gang” didn’t come up. Were you able to get a commitment from Mr. Stevens that should he be elected he would pursue the “Cowles Gang” with all that fire in his belly?

  Just Curious

• 

  liarsinnews on August 04 at 3:14 p.m.

  Truth_and_Justice: If I had the trust you have in the agencies you refer too, I think if I were you, I`d put a tooth under my pillow tonight. As far as getting over it, I guess that`s been said to thousands of people over time. For gosh sakes, Bernie Madoff shell games were mentioned many times over many years and 3 decades later the low life thief was caught. Too bad about the poor souls he destroyed that committed suicide. Seems to me, you should have a reality check and read the documentation one more time regarding Ms. Savage`s death. That is if you did in fact read it in the first place. Like, Detective Ron Wright I strongly disagree with you and your dribble.

• 

  Ron_the_Cop on August 04 at 3:41 p.m.

  Seasoned,

  Believe it or not we really didn’t get into these issues. We were interested in what Stevens would do if he was elected re career criminals and the 72 hours thing.

  Our support was unconditional. There was no quid pro quo re RPS/Savage and we didn’t ask for any consideration either.

• 

  CONCERNEDREADER on August 04 at 3:57 p.m.

  I mailed in my ballot and voted for Chris Bugbee

• 

  bszottlinger on August 04 at 8:34 p.m.

  T and J:

  I believe you and I agreed to disagree in another thread. I will however agree with you here “ Every agency that looked at the Savage case determined there was no crime.” As a relative newbee I understand that the RPS/Savage issue was a big deal several years back but my question to you is whether or not it remains an issue with the majority of the community or is the concern limited to a select few. I truly belive Mr. Savage is heartbroken with the loss of his wife and agreed to a civil settlement most probably to get it behind him. I just pray that continued efforts to push his wifes death to the media forefront isn’t hurting him more.

  Dick adams:

  It appears to me that every government organization and it’s employees have been off your Christmas card list for sometime so it doesn’t surprise me that you would consider what Truth and Justice had to say as “dribble”. With respect to my posting, as a basketball fan would you mind refering to it as something unrelated to basketball. I enjoyed your bull ingestion reference earlier and would be honored if you would refer to this post in an equally eloquent way.

  CONCERNEDREADER:
  I concur.

• 

  Ron_the_Cop on August 04 at 9:50 p.m.

  Brad,

  FYI David Savage is a prominent personal injury attorney and a former president of the WA State Bar Association. He current wife is a former Senior Asst. WA AG. They both wrote emails/letters to Tucker and AG Rob McKenna demanding that an independent criminal investigation be done. They were blown off by both. These folks know the elements of first degree manslaughter in WA. There is overwhelming probable cause to believe her death was manslaughter what was lacking was a complete and thorough criminal investigation that would have followed the evidence wherever it would lead to its logical conclusion. This was never done. JUSTICE WAS DENIED

  Tucker was a key player in this cover up so that’s why I’m holding him accountable at the ballot box. I’m voting for Stevens.

  BTW listen to the audio of the interview with Tucker on the Fitzsimmons Show this afternoon and the interviews with the other candidates on my website:

  www.ronthecop.com

• 

  Truth_and_Justice on August 04 at 11:59 p.m.

  @ Ron_the_RETIRED_COP_FROM_CALIFORNIA

  As you were told on the air today, you don’t know what the grand jury did to investigate the death of Mrs. Savage and, unless you go to law school and get yourself elected prosecuting attorney, you never will. Even then I doubt you would believe that the grand jury did its job (IIRC you don’t even believe they ever convened). The evidence led to a conclusion you don’t like so obviously there is some sort of major conspiracy and cover up - - not a very logical conclusion. Even if Mr. Tucker could tell us what the investigation consisted of, which he cannot, I doubt you would be satisfied. You keep digging for the pony, just don’t expect the rest of us to bother to keep watching.

• 

  Ron_the_Cop on August 05 at 12:35 a.m.

  T and J,

  Tucker failed to do his job and his sworn duty to the people. Bury your head in the sand if you must. I did this stuff for 35 years. I’m calling a shovel a shovel. If everyone else is content allow the coverup of a homicide to go unchallenged that’s fine too.

  That’s my position and I will hold Tucker accountable at the ballot box. You’re free to your own opinion.

  I’m voting for Dave Stevens.

• 

  bszottlinger on August 05 at 7:37 a.m.

  Ron_the_Cop:

  The information you have supplied in your earlier post tells me that Mr. Savage has moved on from the death of his first wife. It’s hard to assess your motives for continually pushing the Savage tragedy. I don’t believe your sheepdog analogy there is something else there and it is troubling to me that you obviously have Mr. Steven’s ear. The varied references to film and literature that have appeared because of your postings bring to mind an oft-misquoted line from Hamlet Act 3, scene 2.

  “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”.

  Brad Szottlinger

• 

  Ron_the_Cop on August 05 at 4:41 p.m.

  Brad,

  There is a concern for all of us when our government is so co-opted that it can’t protect us from criminal victimization and imminent public hazards. Just read the latest re our City Attorney’s Office playing games with Breean Beggs formerly of the Center for Justice in the recent approval of the revised Ombudsman Ordnance as reported in this week’s Inlander. This should give you a clue as to how your government is working to intimidate the public.

  We really don’t know if the garage is safe for continued public occupancy as the City refuses to inspect it to ensure “as built,” ithe repairs to be barriers followed the City’s contract engineering firms additional specifications/requirements. It goes beyond the barriers. Take a look at the concrete girders that are shedding concrete. And don’t miss the water leaking through the parking deck floors. Not good for the rebar in the floors. Mind we have an expert witness who said that in the expansion of the garage no concrete testing was done. Why?

  Yes the statute of limitations has run on the Savage case. Tucker tanked this case and I will hold him accountable at the ballot box. BTW David Savage was divorced from Jo and married to Sally at the time of the accident. They were all actually fairly close and it was devastating to the extended family.

• 

  bszottlinger on August 06 at 7:21 a.m.

  Ron_the_Cop

  This investigation of yours:

  The investigation you worked so hard on. The investigation you have spent your own money on. The investigation you are so very, very proud of. The Investigation that has brought you to believe that you are the sheep dog overlooking your flock. The investigation that you have so vehemently crusaded to have pursued by every law enforcement authority available to you.

  Now you commit your “unconditional support” to a candidate who seeks the only law enforcement office left which might pursue your crusade. The man you have spent hours with. The man whose signs you wave. The man with whom you share political beliefs.

  Yet, you would ask a community without bias or self-serving interest to believe that there has never been a discussion of your crusade with Mr. Stevens. You would have us believe that there is “no quid pro quo re RPS/Savage and we didn’t ask for any consideration either”.

  Do you really expect us to believe that?
  Do you sir?

  Brad Szottlinger

• 

  Ron_the_Cop on August 06 at 7:55 a.m.

  Brad,

  Sorry but it’s true. I’m supporting Stevens without any “quid pro quo” or condition. There’s really nothing that Stevens can do at this point re the Savage case as the statute of limitations has run.

  I’m supporting Stevens because of his values, principles and fire in his belly to be a damn good prosecutor. One that can be independent of the “powers that be” in this town and will faithfully carry out his oath to WE THE PEOPLE. Unlike so many other elected in this town.

  The way to affect change is at the ballot box. If others wish such change then I would encourage them to vote for Stevens.

• 

  Ron_the_Cop on August 06 at 8:20 a.m.

  Brad,

  I was a sheepdog before I moved to Spokane. This investigation did no make me one:-) Yes I have my faults and there are plenty of investigations I probably blew off for one reason or another. However my time is now my own and I’m making amends. I will not give Tucker a pass on covering up what in essence was a homicide. I will hold him accountable at the ballot box.

  It’s because of my training, education and experience as a 35 year criminal investigator that I can speak out and say the emperor wears no clothes. Many in this town either do not see this or look the other way out of fear or for some other reason. Further I am immuned to the normal means by which “the powers that be” marginalize and or retaliate against those who would call attention to their criminal activity.

  Do watch High Noon sometime from the aspect of appeasing evil and or organized crime.