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Mohave County attorney warns of prosecution backlog and seeks more staff
Summary
County Attorney Smith told the Board of Supervisors the office faces a sustained caseload increase, long disclosure work, and turnover that has created a backlog of more than 600 unreviewed criminal cases; she asked to unfreeze positions and fund disclosure specialists and an additional prosecutor.
County Attorney Smith told the Mohave County Board of Supervisors on April 7 that the county's prosecutor staffing has not kept pace with population growth, producing a backlog of unreviewed cases and heavy workloads for existing lawyers.
Smith, who identified herself as having worked in the office since 1987, said felony filings in 2024 exceeded 3,000 reviewed matters and that the office handled more than 2,600 felony filings last year — substantially more than peer counties while staffing remained comparatively small. "We have 603 cases right now that need to be reviewed," Smith said, adding that many of the oldest files have been waiting months. She described long hours of disclosure work — reviewing…
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