Violent crime’s up, but Mecklenburg could lose a prosecutor’s position

• The Senate budget, which passed on Friday, reduces the number of state-funded Mecklenburg County assistant district attorneys from 58 to 57. Ours is the only prosecutor’s office in the state to see a reduction.

Why it matters: 110 murder cases are awaiting trial in Mecklenburg, as the city’s homicide rate has spiked in the past two years and violent crimes and aggravated assaults ticked up. Many gun crimes are carried out by repeat offenders, and Merriweather’s said prosecuting them the first time would solve that.

• 175 violent crime cases are awaiting trial, as are 120 habitual felons and 135 special victims cases.
• Even before the budget process started, Merriweather said this winter that his office would stop prosecuting low-level drug offenses to be able to process more violent crimes.

“This isn’t about jobs,” Merriweather told me Sunday. “If we aren’t appropriately staffed, the longer it takes cases to be reviewed, the longer before defendants can have their cases go to trial, the longer that the families of homicide victims have to wait to see the assailant of their loved one become accountable.”

• “While to some people it may just be a matter of moving positions around and it’s just merely budget numbers, to these families this is cruelty.”

CMPD chief Johnny Jennings brought up the staffing cut in a panel discussion I moderated at Heal Charlotte’s Stop the Violence event on Saturday.

“Trying to do what [Merriweather] does with the limited resources he gets from Raleigh is probably the most challenging thing you can imagine,” Jennings said. “As a matter of fact I think they’re even proposing to cut some of his resources right now.

“I find that just absolutely irresponsible.”

What’s happening: Two districts would receive more prosecutors in the Senate budget — Johnston, and the one that covers Anson/Richmond/Scotland.

State Senate leader Phil Berger’s office said the Mecklenburg cut is practical, pointing to a workload formula study that showed the district covering Anson, Richmond and Scotland counties was one assistant district attorney short. The same report showed that Mecklenburg had more staff than any other district.

• “Based on those two data points, it was a fairly simple decision to move one position,” Berger spokesperson Pat Ryan said.

The big picture: North Carolina is flush with revenue this year — the state budget surplus is about $6.5 billion more than expected — but there’s a partisan divide on what to do with it.

• Democrats want to give big raises to teachers and make other investments.

• Republicans argue that the surplus is only here because of responsible spending over the past decade that they’ve been in charge, and they want to cut taxes to get more money back to individuals.

The state of play: Merriweather has long argued that North Carolina’s courts are underfunded.

Mecklenburg’s DA’s office also has about 26 lower-paying assistant district attorney positions funded through county and city budgets, bringing the number to 84.

• Milwaukee County, Wis., with about 80,000 fewer residents than Charlotte, has about 125 prosecutors.
• Merriweather said his office has added one position in the past decade, but Mecklenburg’s population growing by about 20%.
• “You can’t square that,” he said. “And if you’re remotely serious about prioritizing and promoting public safety and justice, people expect you to do better.”

By the numbers: Under the Senate budget, Johnston County would now have 1 state-funded ADA for every 17,000 or so residents; Mecklenburg would have 1 for every 19,000 or so. Robeson County has about 1 per 10,000 residents.

Of note: The Senate budget also cuts two public defender positions in Wake County — the state’s second largest urban county — and adds some in Robeson County, the News & Observer reported Thursday.

What’s next: The House will present its budget in a couple of weeks. The two sides will negotiate the final budget that will go to Gov. Cooper’s desk.

• Merriweather says he hopes the House version will have better news. And even then, he says, “that shouldn’t obscure the fact that our needs are far greater than what we have right now.”