Harger: King County budget vote will decide whether victims get equal justice

The King County Council votes on the budget for the prosecutor’s office tomorrow. Let’s be clear-eyed about what they’re deciding.

The county prosecutor says council members were shown misleading numbers last week. They were told that her office has 560 people handling criminal cases. She said that’s false. About 150 of those employees work civil cases, not criminal prosecution.

The real numbers from the King County General Fund? Her office has 144 attorneys handling criminal cases. The Department of Public Defense has 194 public defender attorneys, and they’re getting 17 more in this budget. Prosecutors are receiving zero additional hires.

Let me be absolutely clear: Every defendant deserves a robust defense. That’s a constitutional right. Public defenders do critical work protecting it. We should support them. They need adequate resources.

But victims have rights too, and tomorrow’s vote will decide whether those rights matter.

Public defenders have mandatory caseload limits. Under state standards, they can only handle about 10 serious felonies per year. They’re legally protected from overwork. Good. That’s how it should be.

Prosecutors? No limits. No protection. One of Leesa Manion’s deputies is handling 136 child predator cases. Not 10, 136. Those are 136 children waiting for justice while one exhausted prosecutor tries to keep up.

The Department of Public Defense director’s solution? Prosecute fewer crimes. Matt Sanders literally wrote that “the only certain way to reduce costs is for the PAO to file fewer felony cases.” Stop prosecuting low-level cases. Burglaries. Auto thefts. Drug dealing. The crimes that destroy neighborhoods.

We tried that in 2020. Remember?

City Attorney Pete Holmes and County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg scaled back prosecutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result? Homicides hit 73 in King County in 2021, the highest on record. Gun violence exploded. Robberies spiked 20%.

Then we changed course. New prosecutors started holding criminals accountable again. Look at the results. Homicides were down to 55 last year. Shootings dropped 33%. Robberies fell 15%. Seattle has around 30 homicides so far this year.

These aren’t statistics. They are lives saved. Families not destroyed. Businesses that can operate without fear.

Tomorrow, defenders are asking for seventeen new attorneys to handle their limited, protected caseloads. They deserve them. But prosecutors get no new prosecutors or paralegals for their unlimited workload. That’s not balance. That’s abandoning victims.

Defenders with caseload caps get more resources. Prosecutors with no limits get no help.

We’re honoring one constitutional promise and breaking another. The Constitution guarantees effective defense. It also guarantees victims timely justice. Tomorrow’s vote decides whether we care about both or just one.

Council members can still fix this. Fund both sides adequately. Give defenders what they need, and give prosecutors what they need as well. Show victims they matter as much as defendants.

We’ve seen what happens when prosecutors can’t keep up. We lived through it. The gains we’ve made since 2020 are fragile. One budget vote could send us backward.

Tomorrow, the county council decides: Do victims deserve equal justice, or don’t they?

That’s the commentary for Nov. 17. Text us at (888) 973-5476 or leave a comment at MyNorthwest.

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

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