Issue of the Month: County Prosecutor’s Office

The County Prosecutor’s office provides prosecutor services on behalf of all citizens of Kent County in the 17th Circuit Court, and District Courts 61, 62A, 62B, 63, and 59 located in the main cities and townships of the County. Seventeen law enforcement agencies in these localities submit charges and warrants to the Office. These are fielded by 3 Assistants 24 hours per day to ensure immediate charges can be filed, and perpetrators put in jail. There are 33 attorneys, plus the elected County Prosecutor, Bill Forsyth, to handle these cases. In the past year there were over 9,000 warrants authorized. The highest number of charges were for controlled substances (1800), and the next highest group, each with over 1300 cases, were larceny and retail fraud, OUIL/OWVI, and Domestic Violence. The number of homicides dropped dramatically from a year ago to 9 this year and 25 the year before. The Prosecutor’s Office is split into four main functions (1) Criminal Division which handles all criminal cases, (2) Appellate Division handling appeals on previous convictions, and (3) Family Law Division handling such things as paternity cases, and child support; and (4) Juvenile Division handling all delinquency, neglect, and mental incompetency hearings. The Prosecutor’s office operates with a budget of nearly $8 million, and has less attorneys and funds compared to other similar sized counties throughout Michigan. Even with the somewhat limited number of attorneys and funds, our Prosecutor’s Office is one of the more effective counties in the State with 98 convictions per attorney, compared to a low of 36 per attorney in Ingham County, 78 in Macomb, and 61 in Kalamazoo County. Next month a review of the individual courts will be provided.