To: Martin L. Cousineau, Finance Committee Chairperson
From: Prosecutor David Leyton
title
RE: Approval of a request by Genesee County's Prosecutor's Office for continued funding of four (4) investigators who are a critical component to the successful prosecution of felony cases; this is a general fund request
recommendation
BOARD ACTION REQUESTED:
The Prosecutor's Office requests a budget amendment to continue funding for the four investigators in our office who are a critical component to the successful prosecution of felony cases.
BACKGROUND:
In 2021, the Genesee County Board of Commissioners approved ARPA funds to establish an investigators unit to assist with some of the significant challenges that had arisen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, we had been experiencing serious challenges locating witnesses and engaging them to participate in various court events up to and including trials. Additionally, the overall COVID pandemic experience caused unprecedented backlogs of cases and the overwhelming effect of all this caused trial prep to suffer in general and posed challenges to our ability to properly seek justice for individual victims and our community as a whole. The investigators, all retired police officers, were able to assist by locating and contacting case witnesses, conducting witness interviews and reviewing case file materials to identify and help fill-in various gaps in the overall investigation.
DISCUSSION:
Fiscal Services estimates that the ARPA funding for these four investigators will run out on December 5, 2025. We are requesting an amendment to our General Fund budget so that we may continue the work of the investigators through September 30, 2026. Our experience over the past four years utilizing investigators to assist in case file and trial prep has proven to us what many other prosecutor offices around the state have known for years: having our own independent investigators is a critical piece of the puzzle in ...
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