Justice court judges ask for an additional prosecutor
DeSoto County Justice Court judges hope supervisors will make room in their budget this next fiscal year for a new prosecutor. They say the caseload in the county is more than most counties in Mississippi and the prosecutorial part of the process is understaffed.
Judges Doug Hollowell and Benjamin Murphy made their case during Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. With criminal or traffic cases averaging 1,800-2,000 per month in DeSoto County, there is just one full-time and one part-time prosecutor to argue in front of five justice court judges. It becomes a more taxing predicament on what is called “plea days,” when the part-time prosecutor only is available and judges must handle every case as pleas are entered for cases.
“This is the way it’s always been done and that’s OK,” Hollowell said. “Judge Murphy and I are well equipped to do so but we would like the county to explore some options and look out to see what other counties are doing, especially counties with comparable caseload.”
Hollowell pointed out that DeSoto County has more cases per month to deal with, compared to Hinds County for instance, which has just 600-800 cases a month, but has one full-time and six part-time prosecutors.
The request from the judges is for an additional full-time county prosecutor and further discuss the request at a future meeting, when budget discussions begin. The budget will need amendments to include this new position, which would be appointed, not elected, and would likely be considered a full-time employee with benefits.
Hollowell said other counties’ judges are “flabbergasted,” as he put it, when they hear the numbers put out in DeSoto County. He also noted that no inmate can be held for longer than 48 hours without an initial appearance. That means some weekend time and the use of Zoom sessions are required.
“We believe that if we can get somebody else in there that can be available to help us move these cases, we can better prosecute these cases,” Holloway said.
Murphy added that cities have more prosecutors available for their court. For instance, Murphy said Hernando has two full-time prosecutors, Southaven has five available on the main court day on Wednesday, and Olive Branch has two full-time prosecutors.
