New Idaho law boosts resources for investigations

BOISE – A new law gives the Idaho attorney general’s office additional staff and resources to investigate public corruption and misconduct cases, but it may also increase the caseload of the office’s special prosecutions unit.

The unit’s workforce had been cut in recession-driven budgets in recent years, leading it to take an average of 30 cases per year. That’s less than a quarter of the 144 public corruption or capital crimes cases it took in 2005.

“We have had legislators complain about our failure to prosecute people, and we have had to tell them, ‘We don’t have the people,’ ” said Paul Panther, chief of the office’s criminal law division.

Idaho increased the agency’s budget by $617,000 this year. That allows the special prosecutions unit to hire another lawyer and two investigators as of July, the Idaho Statesman reported Sunday.

That will leave the unit with one less attorney than it had in 2008.

But the new law also may mean an increase in the number of investigations the special prosecutions unit takes on. The measure, which takes effect July 1, will require the unit to investigate any complaint it receives against an elected county official.

Currently, only a county prosecutor or board of commissioners can request an investigation, and the attorney general can decide whether or not to accept the case.

“Yes, we will have more resources on July 1, but we also will now have statutorily required investigations we are supposed to do,” Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said.

The new staffers should be able to handle the increased workload, and the law gives the attorney general’s office the authority to investigate whenever there is a complaint of misconduct, Wasden said.

The legislation by Sen. Jim Rice, R-Caldwell, aims to eliminate conflicts of interest for county prosecutors, who represent elected officials in their official day-to-day duties and prosecute misconduct by those same officials.