Cases Dismissed!

Good news for defendants (and their attorneys) in Atascosa County. The San Antonio Express-News reports that the county attorney is dismissing all cases from before 2008. Citing the backlog left by her predecessor, Atascosa County Attorney Lucinda Vickers said there's no way to catch up:

“It's completely impossible. There were 1,400 cases on the computer from 2000 to 2006,” Vickers said. She said she only recently hired an assistant county attorney and a secretary, and she plans to hire one more of each — positions that were vacant under Franklin.

“I was hoping I was going to be able to salvage those (cases), but I don't have the manpower,” she said.

The previous county attorney, R. Thomas Franklin, came under fire in 2006 for sitting on cases, including not filing a single case during a five-month period. Interestingly enough, back then the Atascosa County Judge allowed the county attorney to set the court docket--a pretty rare occurrence in Texas.

Blogger Sam at Man O' Law says justice is not served with the mass dismissals:

I don't know what the remedy here should be. Let the system work its way out, and have defense attorneys file speedy trial motions or do the wholesale dismissals? What about those who want to continue to press charges?

What about DWI's and family violence matters?

Good point, although the E-N article notes that Vickers told local law enforcement agents and lawyers of the dismissals, and "anyone who wishes to continue with a particular case may do so."