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The most resent outgoing DA in Wake County as his final act wrote a letter to the News and Observer about the lack of resources in the DAs office to prosecute DWI cases. His letter is below:
In one of my last acts as the district attorney of Wake County, I write to commend you for your Dec. 31 editorial “ DWI crackdown” bringing attention to federal grant money given to the Raleigh Police Department for DWI enforcement.
The editorial correctly states that there were over 1,000 more RPD impaired-driving arrests in an 11-month period of 2014 than there were the year before. While the dramatic increase in DWI arrests is alarming from a societal standpoint, these additional enforcement resources are certainly welcomed to address such a serious threat to public safety.
However, the editorial missed an opportunity to make readers aware of other important facts. The Cary Police Department, the Garner Police Department and the Wake County Sheriff’s Office also receive federal grant money for DWI enforcement.
It is a conservative estimate that Wake County will have 2,500 more DWI arrests in 2014 than 2013. If so, for the first time Wake County will go well past 7,000 total DWI arrests in a year.
DWIs are among the most complex, time-consuming cases in the court system. One DWI trial can easily take one to two hours to try before a judge in District Court and two days before a jury in Superior Court. It is not uncommon for there to be 25 to 50 DWIs set in a three-hour term of court.
Your editorial mentioned that impaired drivers should suffer certain consequences. This does not happen unless the impaired driver is convicted.
The problem that arises with these grants is that the court system doesn’t receive any additional prosecutors, judges, clerks or magistrates to make sure these cases are handled in the just manner the public rightfully expects. The leaders in the Wake County court system have been responsive by opening a second DWI courtroom to deal with these issues.
Unfortunately, reorganizing already stretched resources is not enough. Federal, state and county officials need to supply the Wake County courts with more prosecutors, judges and clerks to deal with this significant increase in DWI cases. Without that help, I predict that a year from now, you will write an editorial wondering why DWI cases in Wake County are getting older and conviction rates are dropping.
It has been a great honor and privilege to serve as the Wake County district attorney, and I look forward to working on solutions to these problems as a judge.
Ned Mangum
Raleigh
I believe before we start giving the DAs office more financial resources, we need to hold them accountable for what we are giving them now. There is a group of ADAs who believe they run their own kingdom in their courtrooms and can do anything they want regardless of the impact on the system. A perfect example of this is my experience in courtroom 204 yesterday. My client was involved in an accident and was charged with an unsafe movement. These cases are typically dismissed with a letter from the insurance carrier stating that they have paid for the property damages to the other vehicle. I came to court with such a letter. However, the ADA would not accept the letter because hit was printed on the back of a piece of scratch paper. I typically do this to save paper. As a result, the case was continued to another date in February.
So what is the result of this continuance for something as petty as the type of paper the letter was printed on? According to a retired judge in Wake County, the court system is impacted financially in the amount of $50 each time a case is continued. In addition, the docket on the next court date will be at least one case larger as a result of failing to dispose of this case when it could have been done so. Maybe this is why the DAs office cannot handle all of the DWIs. They are wasting their time and resources worrying about things such as the color of paper.
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