Help wanted: Douglas County District Court feeling pinch with increased felony caseload

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St.

Douglas County District Court Chief Judge Peggy Kittel would like the state of Kansas to provide extra help for her district’s six judges and one pro-tem judge.

“We have asked for another position from the state for a district judge or magistrate,” she said, but added: “With the budget situation, that is a low priority with the (Kansas) Office of Judicial Administration. We’d love the help.”

The Kansas Supreme Court has the authority to recommend additional judges or magistrates for Judicial District 7 of Douglas County and the other 30 judicial districts in the state, but the Legislature ultimately must fund those expanded positions.

The Legislature has kept a tight rein on judicial branch funding since the start of the 2008 recession. Kansas Legislative Research Department annual reports show the judicial branch’s fiscal year 2016 budget of $137 million was $10 million more than its fiscal year 2000 budget. Rep. Boog Highberger, D-Lawrence, a House Judiciary Committee member, called the Legislature’s funding of the judiciary “embarrassing,” noting neither judges nor staff have received a raise since the start of the recession and rank at the bottom nationwide in compensation.

Peggy Kittel

The Legislature has approved no Supreme Court recommendations to create new district judge positions in almost a decade. The Legislature last approved creation of three new district judge positions in the state in 2008, said Lisa Taylor, Kansas Judicial Branch public information director.

Three years before that, in 2005, the Douglas County District Court was able to add one judicial position, bringing the total to six judges, said Linda Koester-Vogelsang, administrator for Douglas County District Court.

Another avenue is available, though, to provide additional help at the district court. The Douglas County Commission has funded a pro-tem judge position for more than two decades, Koester-Vogelsang said. The pro-tem’s duties are more limited than those of a district judge but have grown through the years, she said. The current pro-tem, Judge James George, can preside over criminal first appearances and cases involving juvenile offenders, child support modifications, traffic and small claims civil actions.

The Legislature’s inaction on judicial funding has consequences. Kittel said last week that she was scheduling criminal trials into September.

Not too long ago, that wouldn’t have been possible. Before July 1, 2015, the state required a speedy trial of no later than 90 days from arraignment. In 2014, the Legislature changed that definition to 150 days.

The change in speedy trial definition corresponds with a spike in population at the Douglas County Jail. Inmate populations started to increase from a daily average of 176 in May 2015 to 207 in July of that year and 248 by October.

It also corresponds with an increase in felony crimes in Douglas County. The Douglas County District Attorney’s Office in 2014 charged 340 defendants with violent felony crimes involving at least one victim. That number increased to 459 in 2015 and remained steady at 450 cases in 2016. The number of violent felony charges in Douglas County has increased by 32 percent in two years.

Those numbers are also reflected in the Kansas Judicial Branch statistics for the Douglas County Court, or Kansas Judicial District 7. The court had 625 total felony cases come before it in fiscal year 2016. That was an increase from 538 the previous year and was the largest number since fiscal year 2007, when there were 629 felony cases before the court.

In the state’s 2015 fiscal year, Douglas County District Court was third among the state’s six larger judicial districts with a total caseload per judge of 1,966 cases, but was second in felony, domestic relations and the more complex civil cases per judge, with 397.

The caseload indicates the need in Douglas County District Court for another district judge or a magistrate, Kittel said.

“I think we may have been in line for one,” she said. “I don’t see that it is going to happen in the next couple of years.”

Adding more urgency to the discussion is how the lengthened case disposition times are increasing Douglas County Jail populations. Kittel said many factors were involved with the increase, including state cost-saving measures of having those convicted of third-time DUIs and some felony forgery offenses serve time in county jails instead of state institutions.

The criminal trial delays are “systemwide,” and actions of the district attorney’s office, criminal investigators and defense attorneys can also contribute, Kittel said.

Douglas County criminal justice coordinator Allen Beck is concurrently conducting a review of the court procedures that is to be released in the year’s third quarter. Kittel said she would welcome consideration of any proposals that improved the district court’s efficiency.

As for the option of creating another county-funded pro-tem, Kittel said she would not consider making such a request of the County Commission until Emily Kennedy, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office data analyst who started in December, developed data that identifies who is in the jail, what offenses they are charged with and why they remain incarcerated.

Depending on what that data shows, it “could make sense” for the county to add another pro-tem position, Kittel said. Although, as with the current pro-tem, that position couldn’t hear criminal cases but could help relieve district judges of responsibilities with preliminary criminal hearings, limited civil actions and domestic cases, she said.

Still, Kittel said the implications of the county relieving the state of its obligations also would have to be considered.

“We would need to consider the long-term ramifications,” she said. “If the county steps in, would the state back off of adding a district judge in the future because the county was filling that need?”

Douglas County taxpayers already have been asked to fill gaps left by the state by funding the existing pro-tem judge and court staff positions that the state mandates but no longer funds, said Douglas County Commission Chairman Mike Gaughan. But he said he would listen to any data-based recommendation Kittel made.

“I don’t think we ever want to take possible solutions off the table,” he said. “We want to work with Judge Kittel to make sure she has the resources she needs, recognizing again this is a partnership with the state of Kansas. I don’t have a lot of hope in the short term the Kansas Supreme Court will have the resources to fund another district court division in Douglas County. I would love to have a conversation with the Supreme Court about the appropriate level of staffing (for the district court).”