Michael O. Freeman

Hennepin County Attorney

2011 Budget Presentation

October 28, 2010

Good afternoon Mr. Chair and Commissioners, Administrator Johnson, and the citizens of Hennepin County.

On behalf of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, I want to say that it is our privilege to represent Hennepin County and its diverse communities. As lawyers and staff in Minnesota’s premiere public law office, our mission is:

To serve justice and public safety through a commitment to ethical prosecution, crime prevention, and innovative and reasoned client representation.

Though this mission statement adopted last year is easy to recite, our work presents many challenges. Today, I’ll explain how we have met these challenges over the past 12 months and share plans for the future.

Before I do so, however, I must speak directly about our budget. We are at the point where the public safety needs of our citizens cannot be met, nor can quality and timely legal representation be maintained, with additional budget cuts.

Historically, your support has enabled the County Attorney’s Office to do our job - - - for that we thank you. However, additional reductions, be they state or federally induced, will imperil our ability to provide service. We appreciate Hennepin County’s challenges, but we must have adequate resources to maintain the high quality legal services you and Hennepin County citizens deserve.

You see, in the last decade, the legal landscape has changed dramatically. Domestic abuse prosecution has increased more than 75 percent. Prosecutors’ caseloads now contain mortgage fraud, felony DWIs, fleeing police, failure to register as a sex offender, and domestic abuse strangulation cases, all which are felony crimes today but weren’t ten years ago. While public safety has been enhanced with the addition of these new felony crimes, our workloads have also increased. On the civil side, the huge increase in property tax appeals and a continued heavy case load in child support, mean our plates are always full.

Meeting these demands within a tight budget requires efficiencies. Over the past year, we have seized opportunities to both improve and make operations more efficient. For example, as we assumed responsibility for truancy prevention for the county, we examined the staffing and programming needs. Through expanded use of technology and making key interventions earlier, we have improved the county’s response to truancy while lowering its cost. More kids are going to school more often at less cost.

In a similar fashion, for many first time, low level offenders, diversion from prosecution is a smart approach. If a case is diverted, first time offenders are required to pay restitution, acknowledge wrongdoing and take other steps to reduce the risk they will reoffend.

In exchange, the State agrees that it will put the case on hold and dismiss it if the offenders keep their commitments. In juvenile, the case may not be charged at all. Successful diversion reduces cost for judges, public defenders, probation officers, and ultimately the county taxpayers.

After requesting an internal programmatic audit of the county’s diversion provider, we renegotiated the contract with Operation DeNovo. We now pay for performance, provide incentives for educational success and restitution collection, and reduced time from referral to first client contact. These new contract terms will result in lower costs and higher quality services.

Over the past year, we also saw an increase in attorney retirements - which may reach as many as 30% over the next five years. The loss of experience will be substantial; replacing it will not be easy. In response, the office has a two part succession plan.

First, we are committed to hiring, mentoring, and training less experienced, but highly qualified attorneys. We are identifying core attorney competencies, training to those skills, and putting in place a more focused and rigorous performance review process.

Second, we have undertaken a top to bottom review of office staffing with a commitment to ensure work is performed efficiently. As part of that review, dubbed “Right Sized 2015”, we created a long-range plan that will help us put the right staff in the right place.

Finally, diversity plays a key role in being more efficient and effective. For example, our office increasingly conducts our business in languages other the English. By hiring multilingual staff, our office has been able to meet more than 80% of internal translation requirements saving thousands of dollars each year. These savings will increase as the county’s immigrant population increases. More importantly, by speaking the language of the people we serve, we build trust in situations where it is often lacking.

Far too often, our criminal justice system is merely reactive. In our office, we review more than 7500 adult felony cases and nearly 8,500 juvenile cases annually. We charge those cases where there is sufficient admissible evidence to obtain a conviction, and decline those cases where the evidence does not meet that standard. We try those cases that should be tried and resolve those that we should not. Quite frankly, it’s a lot of work.

But, justice requires careful consideration of each case. Justice also means more than just responding to cases as they come in the door, it also means identifying and pursuing proactive strategies that make practical and financial sense for the whole criminal justice system.

For example, we are too reliant on the civil commitment of a select group of sexual predators to state hospitals. These predators should instead be sentenced to prison for longer periods of time. The daily cost of civil commitment is nearly three times that of prison. Tragically, in most cases, treatment is not successful. That’s why we will be working at the legislature to bring about necessary change. We will be seeking to deal with this small group of predators in less expensive prisons rather than in more expensive mental health facilities.

In addition, we will be working at the legislature to change Minnesota law to better distinguish lower level drug users from high level drug dealers. There is an enormous difference between addiction and greed. We should help those with an addiction find treatment. We need to find prison time for those afflicted with greed. This effort will both improve public safety and save money.

The reorganization of the criminal courts here in Hennepin County began in earnest last September. One of our first steps must be to find a way to reduce the needless setting of cases for trial. When a case cannot be resolved early, it is set for trial. At that point, witnesses must be subpoenaed and other costly trial preparation must be done.

The type of multi media court room presentations jurors have come to expect require time and money. Creating those presentations must begin early. Yet, if a case settles on the morning of trial, this effort was wasted. We are challenging ourselves and all the criminal justice partners - including the Public Defenders – to reduce needless trial setting. Getting a handle on this issue would save significant resources for all. Deputy Administrator David Hough is a key player in the drive to develop more criminal justice efficiency. He has our complete support.

be@school

In addition to justice improvements, we have other important work to do such as lowering crime rates and improving the lives of children. We all know that when kids miss school they don’t learn. They are also more likely to either commit crimes or be a victim of crime it they are frequently truant.

As a part of this Boards A-GRAD program, the HCAO be@school program helps get kids to school and keep them there. Our targeted early intervention has significantly reduced truancy, particularly in elementary schools. Now expanded countywide, be@school has and will make a difference in the lives of thousands of the county’s school children and at less cost then previous county truancy prevention efforts.

Gangs

Serving our community in 2011 also requires us to keep the heat on criminal gangs. Through September of this year, our specialized and talented gang prosecution unit had 17 trials and spent 124 days in court. The unit already has 10 trials scheduled for 2011. In addition, building on a program we established in 1996, the gang team is stepping up its use of the neighborhood nuisance laws. These laws allow us go after gang houses and clean them out. These actions are difficult and require close working relationships among neighborhood residents, police and prosecutors. Yet, as a recent case in Richfield demonstrated, cleaning out and closing up a gang house gives real relief to the neighborhood and causes real disruption to the gang.

Guns

In 2011 we will also be focusing on prosecuting gun crimes. Even though overall crime rate is still decreasing, and that is good news, the level of gun violence is unacceptable. We are working closely with law enforcement, probation, and our federal partners, to make sure that we are getting the maximum available penalties for gun offenders. Representatives of the United States Attorneys Office – the federal prosecutors – and our prosecutors meet every two weeks. We compare lists of gun cases to make sure repeat gun offenders are being prosecuted where they will get the longest sentences.

In addition, we have been working closely with the Minneapolis Police Department to compile records of individuals who have been habitually associated with gun violence. When those individuals come into the criminal justice system, judges and probation officers must fully recognize the damage these offenders do to our community.

DNA

2011 will also present an opportunity for our office to continue its national leadership in finding and prosecuting “cold hit” DNA cases. As the nationwide DNA database expands, more matches (or cold hits) are occurring.

Since January, 2009, our cold case team has reviewed a total of 9,347 old sexual assault cases and submitted 584 to the crime lab for testing. We had 81 “hits” including 27 to repeat sex offenders. To date, we have charged 16 cases and received seven convictions.

Mortgage Fraud

Serving our neighborhoods in 2011 will require continued mortgage fraud prosecution as well. As of October 2010, the Office has charged more than 69 individuals and companies in the real estate industry with crimes associated with fraudulent loans and foreclosure schemes. These prosecutions involve more than 365 properties, mainly in Hennepin County, and more than $110 million in fraudulent loans. Given the complexity of these cases, trials have been lengthy, involving voluminous exhibits and large numbers of witnesses.

For 2011, several investigations are presently underway that will lead to the charging of additional fraudsters. We are also directing resources to the next wave in real estate related crime, such as foreclosure rescue and contract for deed schemes.

Diversity

Finally, as the County Board and the County Administrator have recognized, if we are going to provide the quality services Hennepin County citizens have every right to expect, our employees must be able to serve all of our citizens with understanding, dignity, and respect. This fundamental truth is nowhere more important than in the criminal prosecution arena. Our prosecutions must be done in a fair and respectful manner by professionals who truly understand. That is why we are stepping up our efforts to ensure that in all we do - including hiring, mentoring, training, and performance reviews – that it furthers our ability to serve with understanding, dignity, and respect. Justice requires no less.

Thank you.