Luzerne County DA recounts challenging year in budget discussion

Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce covered lots of ground in his recent 2023 budget presentation.

“In order to understand the budget, I think it’s important to understand what it is we’ve gone through in 2022,” Sanguedolce said.

He opened by highlighting the “inordinate” volume of trials — a 25% increase in both jury and bench trials, with more than a month left in the year.

The office prosecuted 54 trials this year to date, compared to 43 last year, he said.

There are currently 34 pending homicide trials, he said.

Juveniles

Due to COVID-19, the youth aid panel had been “basically shut down,” the DA said.

These 11 panels of citizen volunteers develop contracts with first-time, nonviolent juvenile offenders that may allow them an opportunity for a second chance so they don’t carry a criminal record.

With panel placements down during the pandemic, Sanguedolce said he was forced to reassign the youth aid coordinator to handle other work caused by staffing shortages.

He said he is “happy to report” he recently hired a new full-time youth aid coordinator to reactivate the program. The office is reaching out to the approximately 60 citizen panel volunteers to determine if they still want to be involved.

Speaking generally about juvenile crime, Sanguedolce said his office’s juvenile division had 248 referrals to juvenile court last year.

This year to date, there have been 270 juvenile court referrals, he said.

Child victims

The DA’s office has been investigating a large volume of alleged child abuse reports from doctors, teachers and other mandated reporters, he said. Two detectives are handling these cases, he said.

“It’s not only disheartening, it’s frightening. These are the highest numbers that we’ve ever had,” Sanguedolce said.

In addition, he provided year-to-date statistics on work performed by the office’s two-detective child predator division headed by detective Charles Balogh, saying it:

• Received 154 cyber tips this year to date from the the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which sends alerts of possible child pornography on the internet.

• Made 25 arrests and rescued 13 children, with many of those cases resulting in guilty pleas.

• Executed 34 search warrants, issued 130 administrative subpoenas and provided 27 assists to other law enforcement agencies.

The DA also discussed the Child Advocacy Center, an independent organization reliant on donations.

Young crime victims undergo one videotaped forensic interview at the center so they aren’t subjected to repeated, traumatizing inquiries about physical and sexual abuse, he said.

Sanguedolce said referrals to the advocacy center are on pace with last year’s numbers. There were 460 referrals in 2021 and 425 this year to date, with another more than 30 cases pending referral.

Personnel challenges

Sanguedolce said staff recruitment and retention challenges are the “elephant in the room.”

He presented a chart of 20 unionized assistant district attorneys — 16 full-time and four part-time — showing that only five have more than three full years of experience in the office.

“This is a tremendous change from just three years ago,” Sanguedolce said.

Two positions also are vacant, one full-time and one part-time. He also has two non-union division chief vacancies.

He provided a list of turnover since 2020 stemming largely from high caseloads and compensation.

Echoing county Chief Public Defender Steven Greenwald, Sanguedolce urged council to increase compensation in a new union contract with assistant district attorneys/public defenders.

The existing collective bargaining agreement expires the end of this year, and Sanguedolce said he is hopeful both sides can reach an agreement to avoid binding arbitration. Based on past experience, the DA said binding arbitration is expensive and won’t fully address underlying concerns.

His analysis shows counties that start assistant district attorneys at $62,000 to $65,000 are not struggling to attract and retain them.

The current starting pay for attorneys in Sanguedolce’s office is $51,083 for full-timers and $34,165 for part-timers.

Budget request

Sanguedolce is seeking a budget of approximately $6.6 million in 2023.

He also reviewed a series of expanded services and staff that can be covered by grants.

For example, the county is expected to receive $25.4 million in compensation from litigation against opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors spread out over the next 18 years, officials have said. The county received its first $1.04 million allocation in September and is expecting another $1.8 million next month.

Council agreed to schedule a discussion soon on plans for the funding that meet government requirements.

Sanguedolce said he has been meeting extensively with Drug and Alcohol Administrator Ryan Hogan and others to discuss options.

He has requested two detectives to focus on opioid-related cases. The county Drug Task Force, which his office runs, is completely funded by drug forfeitures and could increase arrests with more detectives, Sanguedolce said.

“I think this is a good way to use money that resulted from this opioid crisis to assist those detectives without putting it on the taxpayers,” Sanguedolce said.

Other possibilities include an intelligence analyst to review patterns in drug activity and treatment services and a worker to step up drug prevention efforts in school districts throughout the county. Sanguedolce said an in-school officer could target students in grades five to eight, saying efforts must start before high school. He also envisions guest speakers, noting he recently heard a powerful presentation by a mother who lost her son to opioids.

Opioid litigation funding also could help with staffing in the coroner’s office and funding of union raises for assistant public defenders, he said.

Sanguedolce said he also has requested a portion of the county’s federal American Rescue Plan funding to cover two additional child abuse detectives, saying cases have doubled as a result of youth kept out of the public eye during the COVID pandemic.

He also wants American Rescue funding to provide dash cameras and rifles for county detectives.

“You would be surprised the number of times defendants lie and the truth is caught on the dash cam,” the DA said.

Rifles are warranted due to a national uptick in mass shootings, he said.

The county also was notified it has received a $2.5 million Byrne Memorial Justice Grant, although details are still pending, he said.

Sanguedolce envisions using some of this funding on SWAT teams and scene reconstruction for fatal accidents and major crimes. The county has been experiencing more cases of gunmen barricading themselves with or without hostages, he said.

“We need to stop pretending that we don’t have big-city problems. We have big-city problems, but not big-city resources, so it’s important to be smart about our resources,” he told council.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.