Friday, March 14, 2003 | 4:57 a.m.
WHEN WE ELECTED District Attorney David Roger in November, we knew we were putting a career prosecutor in charge of the office.
And now we're seeing how a career prosecutor runs the office -- which actually is refreshing.
One of the things Roger learned after assuming the reins was that many of his younger deputies had not gotten a lot of trial experience under his predecessor, Stewart Bell, a former defense lawyer who is now a district judge.
Several of the office's seasoned team chiefs also had not been racking up very much trial time.
District Court records show that, of the 8,436 criminal cases the district attorney filed last year, only 133 went to trial. The vast majority of cases were resolved through plea bargains between prosecutors and defense lawyers.
In the face of such statistics, Roger decided to break his new underlings of their habits. Attorneys, after all, are in the trial business.
So the new DA instructed his criminal team chiefs and their deputies to try more cases. Each team chief now will have to do at least three trials a year and each of their deputies five. By Roger's estimate that will add another 35 trials a year.
But Roger didn't issue the edict just for the sake of getting his deputies more trial experience.
His real goal is to put away the valley's most notorious felons, the repeat offenders and habitual criminals, for longer periods of time. These defendants make up 20 percent of the criminal population, yet they commit 80 percent of the crimes.
If prosecutors can resist the temptation to plea bargain these cases to a lesser charge and win jury convictions on an original stiffer charge, they will accomplish that goal. The convictions will result in longer sentences.
Southern Nevada's justice system is known for having one of the heaviest caseloads in the country, but District Court officials also acknowledge that a larger amount of plea bargaining takes place here compared with the rest of the nation.
District Court Administrator Chuck Short says nationally about 3 percent of all criminal prosecutions go to trial. In Clark County the rate is under 2 percent.
Because of the fast-paced growth here, the justice system has come to rely on the plea bargaining process to keep the courts from clogging up.
But the system also has an obligation to make sure that criminals who deserve stiff prison terms get them. If it means taking up more court time, so be it.
Roger believes the community ultimately will be pleased when it sees the fruits of his new trial policy.
"It may cause the criminal justice system to work harder now, but we will reap the benefits of having fewer criminals on the streets," he says.
In the meantime, Roger probably can expect to hear grumblings from judges and defense lawyers.
"It's going to put a strain on the whole system," District Judge Michael Cherry says. "But this is what we're elected to do, and we'll do it."
Cherry cautions, however, that if judges are forced to handle more criminal trials, they may have to cut back on civil trials, which are backing up.
Public Defender Marcus Cooper, whose office handles 60 percent of the district attorney's prosecutions, is leery of the way Roger is setting quotas for his deputies to follow.
"There are plenty of cases that deserve to be tried without setting some standard," he says. "My fear is that it will be done at the expense of some defendant whose case should have been rightfully negotiated and resolved."
It's a legitimate concern and something the district attorney's office probably needs to watch.
But it also doesn't hurt to keep a closer eye on the defendants who have committed most of the crimes in the valley.
Taking the repeat offenders and habitual criminals to trial is the best way to make sure they stay behind bars for a long time.
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