King County prosecutor’s office no longer handling crack residue

Received by Newsfinder from APMar 5, 2005 2:40 Eastern Time By GENE JOHNSONAssociated Press WriterSEATTLE (AP) _ The King County Prosecutor’s Office is trying to save money by turning over drug paraphernalia residue cases _ typically when someone is caught with traces of crack cocaine in a pipe _ to city prosecutors. Previously, such cases were handled by county prosecutors, who would charge suspects with drug possession, a low-level felony. But nearly all of those cases wound up as guilty pleas to attempted possession, a gross misdemeanor, said Mark Larson, King County chief criminal deputy prosecutor. Convicts were typically released after their pleas. So the prosecutor’s office decided to stop handling the cases, beginning this year. Instead, it asked police departments to refer the cases to city prosecutors. “We were going through a lot of trouble to work these cases up, and we realized the outcome was they were being treated as misdemeanors, and I think fairly so,” Larson said. “This is a more efficient way to do business.” Larson said his office had not estimated how much it will save, but that the amount is expected to be marginal. The county will save a bit more on jail costs, he said, but those expenses will be shifted to the city. King County Executive Ron Sims has blamed public safety costs and falling tax revenue for the county’s perennial budget problems. Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr said he did not expect the additional 14 or 15 cases a month to pose a problem for his office, which handles 10,000 cases a year. But he said there has been some grumbling from the city’s budget office over the potential for increased jail costs. It costs $132 to book someone into jail and $92 a day to keep them there, Carr said. His office hopes to keep such costs as low as possible by trying to get addicts into treatment. Defendants will be given the chance to avoid jail time by pleading guilty and agreeing to a SODA order _ which stands for “stay out of drug area.” “If we can get them to go home rather than have them go back to these neighborhoods, they’ll be a lot better off,” Carr said.