Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Is the D.A.'s office bankrupt?

Its looks like our little District Attorney went whining to the media- again.  Can't manage a budget so he asks the Supervisors to bail his office out of financial trouble. The Clarion-Ledger reported yesterday:


Some Hinds County supervisors say District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith has not been completely transparent about taxpayer money his agency is spending and can't produce a detailed budget to account for agency purchases.

Smith's office has requested at least $70,000 in additional funds from the county, saying agency is operating "in the negative."....

At this point, the district attorney's office owes the county $64,000 from the worthless check unit, Board of Supervisors president Peggy Calhoun said. Smith said his office also owes a private DNA laboratory another $22,000.

In the Feb. 17 Hinds County board meeting, Smith appealed to the supervisors to give him another $10,000 a month, saying that he's short in both salaries and operating expenses......

He wants more money? He should be able to provide some budget information, right?  Guess again:

The district attorney's office could not provide overall budget numbers at the meeting but did establish that its budget with state and county funds included is over a million dollars. The county contributes $457,895.86 of that.....

In the meeting, the supervisors said they had asked Smith previously for an itemized budget and he had not provided one.

"At the managerial level, you should know in great detail where your deficiencies are," Greer said. "That's why we want to look at the budget to see what line item is the deficiency and find ways to balance it. It's very hard to justify any additional funds after the budget has been finalized without that."

Calhoun said Tuesday that she had met with one of Smith's staff members and was supposed to have those numbers in hand this week. She has not yet received them.....

However, the D.A. did have a ready-made excuse: It's all the mean ole Sheriff's fault: 

Asked why his office is operating in the red, Smith said he had asked for more in the last budget and was denied. He also told supervisors that the Hinds County Sheriff's Department was not giving his office its share of the drug-seized funds.

Smith said that in the past, the district attorney's office has received $65,000 a year from the Sheriff's Department's forfeiture fund. Smith said since Sheriff Tyrone Lewis' administration took over, he's only received $3,000.

Calhoun said Smith had told her he received over $100,000 a year from the Sheriff's Department in the past. But based on numbers she had from the Sheriff's Department, Calhoun said the district attorney's office only received $40,000 between 2008 and 2011.

"That's a big difference," she said.....
 "By state law, you can't budget based on what you expect to seize," Greer said Tuesday. "I'm gonna budget on based on what I think I'm going to make doing drug interdiction and arresting people on the interstate? You can't hang your hat on that; it's not what the law says." Article.
 This was a good article written by Therese Apel.  There are a couple of facts that need to be interjected into this story.  There is one person whom the D.A. did not blame for the lack of seizure money: Circuit Judge Tomie Green. She has been sitting on nearly half a million dollars in forfeiture money for a looooong time now.  Consider it part of her feud with the Sheriff's office.  The D.A. knows this but doesn't say anything about her refusal to approve the funds.   There was a similar sum that was just approved by the courts but it was held for a long time as well.

What the D.A. has not done is formally request the money.  There are certain procedures to go follow if the D.A. wants a share of the money and guess what? They have not been followed. His prosecutors have not filed the required paperwork to get the funds.  If he wants the money, perhaps he should ask for it.  However, its easier just to blame the Sheriff instead of confronting the judge or following the proper procedures.

What is more troubling is the fact that the District Attorney's office apparently has no budget and did not tell Supervisor Calhoun the truth about the budget.  One suspects that the D.A. does not even know how to make a budget.   The D.A. might want to know where his money is or was before he goes asking the board to give him more money.  

One interesting little fact: It was Supervisor Robert Graham who placed his budget request on the agenda for the February 17 meeting.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look, you plainly have no clue how expensive it is to not-prosecute suspected criminals ... sometimes they have to not-prosecute the same guy four or five times!

Anonymous said...

That is a good story. I find it incredible that the DA cannot produce a budget. How can he ask for more money when he can't show where the money has gone or will go?

Anonymous said...

Apparently he rarely shows up at the office and his ADAs are paid more than the pds. And it takes four years to take a case to trial. Smith is a joke.

Anonymous said...

Having dealt with Smith on many, many prior occasions, it is obvious to myself, and the entire legal community, that he doesn't have a clue as to what is going on. The above poster is correct, Smith is never at the office. I am going to guess that he hasn't handled ten cases in his nearly 8 years in office.

Don't blame the ADAs, they are, for the most part, good prosecutors but everyone up there is afraid to do anything because you never know how Smith is going to react.

Anonymous said...

This board ain't like the old hinds county boards.

Anonymous said...

It ain't cheap being worthless.

Anonymous said...

Stanley Alexander could not have asked for a better public denuding of Smith as a platform to say the office is bankrupt, that he can comply with state law and run the DA's office as it should be. How sweet to have the BOS and the sheriff making the case against Smith for you so it doesn't come off as a personal attack. I think I'll be sending some $ Alexander's way...

exjxnres said...

There sure seems to be a tremendous amount of incompetence in his department.

Anonymous said...

It might be a good time for the State Auditors's Office to look into this, um... situation. But that may about too much like "the right thing to do".

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, it will all even out. After all, Judge Weill is saving the county money.... wait....

Anonymous said...

Is there a procedure for asking the State Auditor into a situation? Or does he just read the papers and say "that sounds like a situation for me to look into"? In order to defeat this incumbent, the overall picture of his poor performance must be spoken of ad nauseum on the local radio talk shows. The lack of a budget will "play" to the audience. The fault that criminals are on the street when they should not be, will "play". Talk of slow and poor prosecution will not. It can be done with the right salesman.

Anonymous said...

^^ Agree with 9:49,

Criminals run wild, budget problems and no leadership skills. Run on that.

Also, does everyone remember that Smith was in bed with Ed Peters during his initial run for DA? Remember that commercial Ed ran for him to drum up all the white support for him over Faye Peterson? I think Alexander should use that as well.

Smif said...

Any citizen can file a complaint with the AG or State Auditor's offices.

Anonymous said...

Someone from the Board of Supervisors needs to request an audit of all funds given to DA Smith to determine if the funds have been misused. The people of Hinds County have the ability to finally get a DA that will be a man that is competent, ethical and will be present in the office! I implore everyone to send Stan Alexander some money so he can put a nail in RSS's coffin and bring respect back to the DAs office. Give the criminals something to fear!

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, it looks like the stupid guy is a better choice than the non-existent guy.

Anonymous said...

Anybody CAN file a complaint with the State Auditor, but that doesn't mean he will do anything with it. Plenty of complaints have been made about the 'previous' board and its leader, Ltf Graham and all his sheninagins with various expenditures (for example, Airwaves). But the State Auditor has chosen not to tackle the supervisors in the state. Wonder if he will take on a DA. Don't hold your breath.

Anonymous said...

We are living the nightmare of a collapse in intelligence compounded with an increase in entitlements.

RSS was an incompetent practitioner. He is equally incompetent as a leader of prosecutors.

The upshot is, his ignorance and stupidity make for excellent defenses to criminal cases which, in turn, leads to interesting posts about his ineptness right here.

So sit back and watch the silliness....and buy some guys while you are at it.

Anonymous said...

An example of mis-managing funds... An investigator with the DA's office was given a raise by Smith to drop out of the race against a constable that Smith supports.

Sun 'n' Sand said...

Most of us are credits but Smith is definitely a debit.

Remains In Office said...

We've heard both sides of the coin. On the edge of the coin is the fact that the criminals want Eyebrow-Man to remain in office. And every criminal and would-be criminal has 25 relatives who vote.

Anonymous said...

Ms.Mary ,please come in fast.

Raize Dat Brow said...

4:17; Please define what you mean by 'a collapse of intelligence'. For something to collapse requires, first, that it exist.

Just $Saying said...

Not surprised most employees only work part time for a full time salary to see this all you need to do is view the reserved parking spaces behind courthouse,vacant a lot unless they have let others use their space,one reason most cases are put off time & time again. The judges are as bad or worse, most have no dedicated work ethic. We need to get a signed pledge to work Full time before voting for anyone.

Anonymous said...

So Robert Smith gave an employee a raise so the employee would not run against an incumbent constable Smith supports?

That does sound like a serious misuse of county money.

Anonymous said...

Robert Smith is the best thing to ever happen for the criminal element of Hinds County and the Hinds County Public Defenders who, likewise, get paid public tax $$$ to "represent" said element. Additionally the Judges get to grant many Orders of Continuance and the good times keep on rolling along...


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