Linn County attorney reports declines in violent crime filings, outlines plan to tackle court backlog and expand diversion

Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks told the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 7 that felony and violent-crime filings in the county have declined from 2022 and that his office will press the district court to reduce backlog in cases affecting victims.

Maybanks, speaking during the elected-officials update, said the office filed an average of 74 felony offenses per month in calendar 2024—down from an average of 81 per month in 2023—and outlined several other year-end statistics, including homicide filings and firearms offenses.

"For homicides, we filed 12," Maybanks said. "Our firearm offenses we filed 204. That's a drop from 2022." He said the county filed 234 indictable misdemeanors in November and averaged 250 per month for calendar year 2024, a slight increase over 2023.

Maybanks attributed the overall decline in violent crime filings to a combination of national trends and local efforts, including community policing and targeted charging practices that preserve felony resources for violent offenders. He said the office has adjusted drug-filing practices to use misdemeanor charging in some cases so felony attorneys can focus on serious violent crimes.

The attorney said reducing the court backlog is a top priority. He said sexual-abuse cases filed in 2021 took an average of 645 days from filing to sentencing and called that delay "unacceptable to victims." He reported recent outreach to Chief Judge Anderson to develop approaches that could accelerate the processing of time-sensitive cases.

Maybanks also outlined office staffing and operational goals: he plans to expand diversion programs (noting success with the county's marijuana diversion), seek opioid-settlement funding to back some positions (for example, a drug-treatment court prosecutor), increase mentoring and training within the office, and continue implementing technology to streamline discovery and research.

"If we get their caseloads down, they can spend more time actually training our attorneys," Maybanks said, describing plans to increase tutelage for newer prosecutors. He told the board the office will pursue ways to reduce recidivism and to use diversion and probation more strategically to supervise lower-level offenders and keep them from escalating.

Maybanks also announced recent hires: two office support staff started the week of Jan. 7 and a new attorney from Dubuque County will begin in two weeks, which he said would bring the criminal division to full staffing.

He asked the board for continued communication and support as the office pursues backlog relief and program funding; he said he will work with court administration to present options to reduce delay.