Score-keeping no way to improve justice system

It’s important judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys operate within a judicial system that moves defendants quickly, smoothly and fairly through the courts to timely and just outcomes. So when obstacles arise within that system, judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys need to work together to remove or mitigate them.

One such obstacle in the 2nd Judicial District has been a high rate of dismissals, some of which can be attributed to a “case management order” — deadlines for prosecutors and court cases put in place by the state Supreme Court in February 2015 to speed up the process. It was implemented because too many criminal cases were being significantly delayed, and the county jail was overcrowded with defendants waiting too long for their trials.

The good news is the jail and the dockets are nowhere near as clogged. The bad news is too many cases are not being decided on their merits and, according to District Attorney Raúl Torrez, too much crime is hitting the metro area as a result.

When the case management order came down, then-District Attorney Kari Brandenburg’s office had great difficulty meeting the guidelines, leading to a massive backlog. And Torrez says that backlog and the case management order have forced his office to concentrate on repeat offenders and the most serious crimes, dismiss less serious offenses and, at times, dismiss even serious cases because of the deadlines. He says the order’s deadlines have also led judges to dismiss cases.

So Torrez recently asked the Bernalillo County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council — a group that meets monthly to discuss local criminal justice matters and includes prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, law enforcement officers and other officials — to agree to changes and submit them to the state Supreme Court for consideration.

In selling his plan, Torrez has been undeniably passionate and, occasionally, a bit impolitic toward opposing counsel as well as the judiciary. For example, he accused defense lawyers of engaging in “gamesmanship” to exploit problems within the system and called some rulings by judges “absurd.” Understandably, said lawyers and judges did not take the criticism lightly.

The court recently answered back with its own report that shows during the first six months of this year, Torrez’s office dismissed roughly twice the number of cases as judges — 617 vs. 304. A memo distributed to court officials also said crime began rising in Albuquerque in 2010 and 2011 — not just recently, and that Albuquerque police are arresting fewer people than in the past.

There are many reasons prosecutors dismiss cases — witnesses and victims decide not to cooperate, evidence is insufficient, there isn’t sufficient resources to move forward with every case and meet the deadlines, etc. And one reason arrests are down is undoubtedly APD’s inability to get to 1,000 sworn officers.

But all this finger-pointing and score-keeping — including Torrez’s occasional poor choice of words — is not helping to resolve the issue of efficient justice and stands to steer the conversation onto counterproductive tangents.

Meanwhile, the case management order does erect some basic deadline roadblocks that stand in the way of cases being heard and decided upon their merits. The better course is for the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to give Torrez’s suggestions for improving the case management order a fair and timely hearing, and for everyone involved to cool the rhetoric. It’s time for all to come to the table with the council and get a game plan for moving forward.