Wolfson’s promises might run into Roger’s budgetary obstacles

One complaint Clark County commissioners had about former District Attorney David Roger was that he didn't staff the specialty courts, such as the DUI, drug and mental health courts.

The implication was that Roger was so tough on crime that he didn't believe in courts which encourage treatment as an alternative to prison.

Steve Wolfson, chosen to fill out the last three years of Roger's term, promised he would staff specialty courts.

But Roger didn't stop sending prosecutors to specialty courts because he disagreed with the philosophy; he stopped because of budget cuts.

Wolfson is going to face the same budget restrictions.

Where will Wolfson get the prosecutors? Will he raid other divisions to cover specialty courts?

The DA's budget was the basis of hostility between Roger and Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani. Last spring, Roger resisted cutting his office's budget by another
9 percent. He had cut 4 percent from the operating budget in the fall of 2010 and another
8.5 percent personnel cut for the 2010-2011 year.

No more, he said, refusing to cut another 9 percent, arguing publicly that further cuts would cripple his office, which at that time had lost 83 positions, including 23 prosecutors in the previous two years, leaving each deputy to handle 638 cases.

Yet, in the end, Roger worked with county management and cut another 1.5 percent from the budget.

In his first lengthy interview since resigning as DA to work for the Police Protective Association, Roger addressed criticisms county commissioners raised against him, saying some are because of budget cuts, some of his operations paralleled his predecessors and others, such as certifying juveniles as adults, are decided by judges.

CRITICISM: Roger filed too many death penalty cases, which are expensive to defend.

True, Clark County's 80 pending capital cases are a larger number than Los Angeles County's 33 and Riverside County's 40.

Roger said his predecessor Stewart Bell filed death penalty cases 52 percent of the time when there were aggravating circumstances. "I used the same system and some of the same people to make the decisions, and we filed in
39 percent of the cases." Bell created a panel to review whether to ask for the death penalty.

The problem is that many more cases qualified as death penalty cases, so the raw numbers of death penalty cases increased even if percentages dropped.

The county, which pays for attorneys for indigent defendants in death penalty cases, is looking for ways to cut costs, and it's cheaper to seek life without parole. But some victims' families don't like that alternative.

CRITICISM: Roger didn't send a deputy DA to officer-involved shootings.

Nor did his predecessors.

The Clark County system used a coroner's inquest (which routinely found the shooting justified), and the sheriff's department self-policed whether to ask a DA to file charges against officers. The DA's office didn't do an independent review of officer-involved shootings.

Roger said even before the Review-Journal's "Deadly Force" series ran, he and Sheriff Doug Gillespie were discussing sending a deputy DA and an investigator to officer-involved shootings. The sheriff "wanted everyone on board" before they took that step, Roger said.

Thursday it was announced that 20 years of officer-involved shootings will be examined by federal officials. It's the police department that will be reviewed, not the DA.

CRITICISM: Morale was bad under Roger.

"It's tough to respond to a voice without a name or without a face," Roger answered.

Insiders tell me morale is bad, but say it has more to do with the workload because of budget cuts. "That was the morale sucker," Roger confirmed.

Employees now wonder how their lives might change after Wolfson is sworn in and starts making good on his promises.

Let's hope Wolfson can stretch that budget and inspire staff to work harder while improving morale.

Or is that a dream?

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison