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St. Lawrence County will fill two assistant district attorney positions, but office will still be short-staffed

Posted 6/11/16

By JIMMY LAWTON CANTON -- St. Lawrence County will fill two recently vacated assistant district attorney positions as the county is expected to be down by at least three prosecutors in the coming …

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St. Lawrence County will fill two assistant district attorney positions, but office will still be short-staffed

Posted

By JIMMY LAWTON

CANTON -- St. Lawrence County will fill two recently vacated assistant district attorney positions as the county is expected to be down by at least three prosecutors in the coming weeks.

The county is amidst a hiring freeze and requires all county hiring to be reviewed by the vacancy committee, which makes a recommendation to the county committees. From there, the county board of legislators approves or denies the recommendation.

Recently, the county committee recommended filling two of the three vacancies left at the DA’s office. That was prior ADA Sarah Clothier’s decision to seek employment elsewhere. She is the fourth District Attorney to leave the office in the past few months.

On Monday, legislators agreed to fill two positions, but once those positions are filled, the county will still be down assistant district attorneys.

District Attorney Mary Rain said the county has hired one new Assistant District Attorney who has 15 years of experience, but still faces massive caseloads for all prosecutors.

The vacancy recommended the county delay in filling a third vacancy in recent weeks, but that was prior to receiving a resignation from Sarah Clothier.

Being short on help is a problem St. Lawrence County District Attorney’s Office has struggled with since Rain took the helm.

When she took office Rain fought to increase the number of ADAs at her office citing high caseloads and staffing below recommended levels. She was eventually able to convince the county to add two ADAs to the office, with help from a program where university’s help pay for a portion of the ADAs pay.

However, high turnaround in the office has hindered the effectiveness of the additional staffing levels. Clothier’s resignation will mark the 15th ADA to leave the office since Rain took office. Rains says nearly everyone who has left the office has sighted the extreme case loads as a major problem, with some ADAs assigned to as many as 250 felony cases. She said the average case load should be closer to the 45 or 50 mark.

According to the resolution seeking to fill positions when “St. Lawrence County's population, geographical size, and number of courts, current State averages, including averages specific to the Fourth Judicial District, dictate that the Office of the District Attorney should have a minimum of 12 Assistant District Attorneys.

At full staff St. Lawrence County has only nine.

According to the resolution, the DA’s office is running “dangerously” low on staffing levels.