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Trempealeau County district attorney seeks additional prosecutor staffing, plans truancy social‑work intern
Summary
District Attorney John Sesop told the board his office is under‑staffed relative to workload and is seeking an additional assistant district attorney through state‑level funding; he also announced placement of a social‑work student intern to address truancy.
Trempealeau County District Attorney John Sesop told the county board on May 19 that his office is operating below recommended staffing levels and that state proposals and association advocacy could bring an additional prosecutor to the county.
“We're pretty much exactly in the same place that we were last year,” Sesop said, describing felony and overall case volumes and noting that Trempealeau County’s percent staffing was shown as 52.43% in a packet he shared. He said a two‑person office is effectively sized to be a four‑person office under the association’s staffing model and that adding a third prosecutor would raise the county’s staffing percentage toward the association’s 80% goal.
Why it matters: the DA said the office handles roughly 1,100 cases of all types annually and that additional staff would ease prosecutorial workload. Sesop described ongoing lobbying efforts by the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association to secure new prosecutor positions in the state budget and said Trempealeau County is positioned to receive at least one additional position if state funding is approved.
Truancy and social‑work placement: Sesop said his office has arranged to host a social‑work student from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire to work on truancy issues in collaboration with the Department of Human Services and local schools. “We're very grateful to have been selected or approved for placement of a social work student, as an intern in the office to focus on the issue of truancy,” Sesop said, adding that truancy has increased since the COVID‑19 pandemic and that addressing it requires coordination among schools, DHS and the DA’s office.
The DA discussed the availability of a contributing‑to‑truancy statute as a potential tool to hold parents accountable in some cases but described it as “polarizing” and said prosecutors have used warning conversations successfully in some instances instead of pursuing criminal charges.
No formal board action was taken on the DA’s update at the May 19 meeting.
