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Lakewood prosecutor reports steady caseload, toxicology backlog and emphasis on retail-theft enforcement
Summary
City attorney and the city prosecutor told council hiring is challenging and the office relies on contractors; prosecutors prioritized retail theft enforcement, described diversion and treatment options and warned toxicology lab delays have slowed DUI charging in some cases.
City attorney Heidi Wachter and city prosecutor Ty Graham updated the council on prosecuting services operations and caseload priorities.
Wachter said the department has had difficulty filling a second associate city attorney position and has supplemented capacity with contracting. Graham described the offices screening: cases start with evaluation of police reports, prosecutors weigh probable cause and prosecutability and sometimes return reports for further investigation. He emphasized a prosecutorial focus on public safety, diversion opportunities and efficient case handling to limit unnecessary hearings.
Graham said retail theft is a significant share of the caseload (about 31 percent), largely commercial theft in the Lakewood Town Center. He described an "aggravated theft" policy that increases penalties for organized or high-value schemes and actors who travel from outside the area to steal. "Those are the people that came in with a plan," Graham said, distinguishing them from low-level, one-off incidents.
On DUIs, Graham said about 50 cases are waiting on toxicology lab results and that the statewide backlog has delayed charging; in some instances delays have approached the statute of limitations. He said the office sometimes delays filing until lab results arrive because prosecutions without that evidence are often difficult to sustain.
Graham also discussed diversion programs and treatment courts as part of a strategy to reduce reliance on public defense resources and to get some defendants into treatment rather than prolonged court cycles. On code enforcement, staff said civil-infraction processes and the Community Safety Response Team focus on compliance with opportunities for reduced penalties when property owners make demonstrable progress.
Wachter and Graham said they will continue evaluating hiring, contracting and diversion options and will return with policy options as appropriate; councilors asked for more detail on diversion pathways and on recruitment efforts.
