N4T Investigators: Attorneys raise concerns over slow moving cases, how Pima County Attorney is addressing shortage of prosecutors | News

TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) – The U.S. Constitution guarantees criminal defendants and victims of crime a right to a speedy trial.

Some attorneys in Pima County tell the News 4 Tucson Investigators they feel cases are moving too slowly as the County Attorney’s office deals with a shortage of prosecutors.

“It’s been a pretty consistent problem for a couple of years now,” said defense attorney Louis Fidel.

Fidel is a very prominent defense attorney in Pima County, the News 4 Tucson Investigators spoke with him after hearing from several attorneys concerned by slow moving cases that did not want to be interviewed.

For Fidel, it was no secret what was behind the issues. He knows his counterparts at the Pima County Attorney’s Office have been having to do more work with less resources.

“It makes it difficult to get things done not for lack of trying but there’s only so many hours within a day,” he said.

The N4T Investigators also interviewed defense attorney Chris Scileppi, who explained why it’s so important to get cases handled in a speedy fashion.

“It’s important to get cases handled in a timely manner because memories fade overtime,” he explained.

He’s seen the slow downs and feels the County Attorney’s Office has actually been making improvements recently. He said he’s been happy to see more of his clients being offered plea deals.

“[The PCAO] is probably in a position where they are offering something they may have not offered before to resolve a case but that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” he said.

News 4 Tucson’s Chief Investigative Reporter Chorus Nylander sat down one on one with County Attorney Laura Conover in an exclusive interview.

“We’re going to need to talk about three things: the Covid backlog, we’re going to need to talk about retention of attorneys then we would need to discuss and investigate how a DAs office is budgeted,” Conover said.

Conover told us she hasn’t received any complaints about cases moving too slowly and questioned the motivations of anyone who spoke to us about it. She acknowledged that her office is short several positions including prosecutors.

She provided us a graph comparing Counties of similar size, breaking down their budgets and number of prosecutors. According to the graph, Contra Costa County in California which has almost the same population has $20 million more in the budget and almost double the number of prosecutors.

At the time of our interview last week, Conover said her office had 52 attorneys.

Conover said Covid played a huge role in why so many prosecutors have left her office. She said Pima County took the pandemic more seriously than most of the state, something she feels is a good thing despite the ramifications today.

“The Pima County backlog is much more profound than most counties and much more profound than Maricopa County and that’s a point of pride for Pima County,” she said.

Conover told us that to deal with the backlog, now former Chief Justice for the Arizona Supreme Court Robert Brutinel, made what he called an “edict” earlier this year.

That “edict” was issued to Pima County Superior Court demanding faster case completion rates,

“Judges would start to get in trouble if they didn’t start dealing with their backlogs and put a lot of speed into the cases before them,” explained Conover.

The Arizona Supreme Court declined to speak with us about the communications that were made but provided its new guidelines on how long cases should take.

Conover said the “edict” added pressure to already overworked prosecutors to try and get cases done.

She said the added pressure resulted in several of her staff resigning, she said in exit interviews for several of her recent lost employees they cited that moment as a reason why they were leaving.

Also during Covid, Conover told us that private practice firms were poaching her talent.

“Large firms went into government offices and said not only can I double your salary but you don’t have to go to court every morning and you’ll be safer,” she explained.

Before the pandemic, Conover said her office had 88 prosecutors in 2019. She told us now the County Board of Supervisors have funded her office for about 61.

“So we’re doing the work with less, do I worry about burnout absolutely.”

The N4T Investigators obtained “termination reports” from Pima County showing three resignations within the PCAO just within the last pay period which ended on the 21st.

The documents show 78 vacancies in the PCAO, that includes positions other than prosecutors.

Conover told us that she has to work within the budget set for her by the Board of Supervisors.

We spoke with Supervisors Adelita Grijalva and Steve Christy.  

“I feel like we have been as responsive as we can be given the restrictions we all have on budgets,” Grijalva said.

“My best recollection of the budgetary process was Ms. Conover got what she submitted. Perhaps the County Attorney look at her management practices to see if there’s improvements that could be made there,” Christy said.

We followed up with Conover about Christy’s statement. A spokesperson sent us the following response:

“The Board of Supervisors approved a policy in October of 2022 that allowed County Administration to sweep certain positions from departments in the County. We believe Supervisor Christy voted “no” but defer to him on the matter.

Subsequently, County Administration swept funding behind PCAO positions which totaled approximately $2 million in 2023.

In March of 2024, PCAO worked diligently to get funding returned so as to make its budget and did get a portion back. In June, the agency was under budget as a result.

On the topic of PCAO’s 2024/2025 budget, while the Board of Supervisors granted PCAO funding for all but 9 positions, none of the supplemental requests made by this agency were forwarded to the Board based upon the needs of other departments and the state of the budget. The supplemental requests made were for critical infrastructure, including software, supplemental funding for an anticipated Federal grant shortage for victim advocate positions, and for outside counsel for unanticipated legal needs.”

During our interview Chorus Nylander asked Conover, “As we sit here today do you feel any defendants this year in Pima County had their rights violated because of a lack of staffing in your office?”

“No. It’s because I would have heard. I am the most accessible County Attorney the County has ever had,” Conover responded.

Conover said her office is about to hire 10 new attorneys to their office that are completing the needed qualifications, that will help boost their numbers.

If you have a story you’d like the News 4 Tucson Investigators to look into email us at [email protected] or call our tip line at 520-955-4444.