Judge Needham and District Attorney Karl Anderson recently sounded the alarm at a St. Croix County Board meeting: Apparently no one wants to take public defender cases and no one wants to work for Karl.
DA Anderson attributes it to lack of pay, which is a convenient deflection from other potential explanations. And while it is substantially more socially convenient to ignore other explanations, the community continues to suffer, public safety remains compromised by our failure to put on our big boy pants and have the hard conversations about the state of our local justice system.
We are a local justice system that complains about caseload and asks for more taxpayer dollars, but prosecutes pot possession cases; one that rakes domestic abuse survivors over the coals, including putting them through criminal prosecution when the evidence does not support the allegations made against them.
We are a local justice system where a young and minimally experienced DA lacks the judgment to not waste taxpayer dollars on trials for which the evidence does not support a conviction and where a more seasoned DA would triage our resources and prioritize public safety.
We are a local justice system in which those who commit sexual assault and domestic abuse are likely to return home after arrest – that is if they are even arrested – before the arresting officer gets home from that shift.
We are a local justice system that appears to bend over backward to maintain access to guns for those who terrorize their spouses and children; where the family court commissioner does not appear to appreciate that cooperation takes two people and sabotage just takes one bad faith actor.
As a suburb of the Twin Cities, St. Croix County is not in the “boonies.” We are, or rather should be, a place that attracts good attorneys who want to live and work here. If local justice system leaders want people to want to work here, perhaps they should look in the mirror and start being honest about the reputation that precedes us, one that very understandably sends competent attorneys running away from St. Croix County.
(1) comment
WOW!!! Well said. It's about time someone brought this issue to light. Thank you
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Email questions to jjohnson@orourkemediagroup.com.