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Extracted from Consolidated Report

This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.

Lake County Grand Jury • 2013-2014

Overview of District Attorney's Office

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Findings 5 findings

F1 Page 32
The DA’s Office is currently working well with other parts of Lake County law enforcement, but it is understaffed to handle all the workload.
F2 Page 32
The Environment Crimes unit proposed by the DA to the BOS in the spring of 2013 was tabled until the 2013/2014 budget was created. The DA’s Office is in meetings with County Counsel and the Planning Department. The office is looking for initial set up monies from the Lake County General Fund. After the initial training and set up of a unit, the District Attorney estimates that two large cases a year would fund the program.
F3 Page 32
The DA’s Department is planning to demonstrate what can be done with the present staff by picking the five worst environmental crimes cases, take them to a Criminal Grand Jury for indictment and DA’s Office prosecution.
F4 Page 32
The DA’s Office is requesting from the court that a Criminal Grand Jury be impaneled. This could take the format of a Grand Jury impaneled for specific cases, or a sitting jury impaneled for a term of one to two years. These options are under consideration at the court. There has been no Criminal Grand Jury impaneled for over twenty years until the 2013 provisional grand jury was chosen. In those cases the jury was drawn from the general electorate similar to general trial jury selection for determination of some specific cases.
F5 Page 32
At present, there is no Consumer Crimes Unit. These types of crimes are prosecuted using the DA Office’s general felony attorneys.

Recommendations 3