Stutsman County ND (Valley News Live) – After receiving a tip through the Whistleblower Hotline involving the Stutsman County Jail, Valley News Live began investigating.

According to court records, a former correctional officer was charged in May for having sex with an inmate. Despite the woman admitting to the act, according to court documents, the case was dismissed.

Valley News Live has chosen not to name the woman because of this. However, after digging into why the case was dismissed, Valley News Live discovered this isn’t uncommon right now.

There simply aren’t enough attorneys to go after this kind of crime. Stutsman County State’s Attorney Fritz Fremgen says the shortage is so bad, he can’t go after the cases he normally would.

From 1998 to 2022, the Stutsman County State’s Attorney’s Office has had three full-time prosecutors. Two assistant state’s attorneys and one state’s attorney.

In January 2022, Stutsman County lost one assistant state’s attorney to Cass County. Fremgen says it’s the sixth Stutsman has lost to Cass since he’s been in office and that vacancy hasn’t been filled.

In June 2023, Stutsman lost its last remaining assistant to the attorney general’s office. Fremgen, now on his own, says he has to decide which cases to prioritize. There are several things he considers for charging, settling and dismissing cases, including:

-Whether there is a direct victim, e.g. violent crime, sex crime, or theft;

-Seriousness of the offense;

-Whether another entity has jurisdiction, e.g. the City of Jamestown or the U.S. DOJ;

-Whether jurisdictions have cases against same suspect and what the probable outcome is in the other jurisdiction;

-Human resources available e.g. numbers and experience;

-Whether we have a reluctant victim/witnesses (many DV victim’s don’t want any more government involvement than the arrest and removal from premises);

-Whether we can get the victim what they are looking for, e.g. I just want the addiction cured;

-Strength of the state’s case in legal and factual terms;

-Suspect’s criminal record, age, and other factors like chemical dependency;

-Bang for the buck e.g. how much are we going to put into this versus how much the state/victim going to get out of it, e.g. practicality of trial and appeal over a B misdemeanor;

-Enforceability of the judgment e.g. will the convict be paroled quickly or sit quite a while, will we collect any restitution for damages;

-Whether an appeal, post-conviction activity e.g. habeas corpus, Rule 35, appeal, and/or successive reviews e.g. annual review under 25-03.3 are likely;

-Suspect’s mental capacity to stand trial;

-Location of the perpetrator e.g. out of state needs to be extradited and transported back to ND at county’s cost;

-Location of witnesses, e.g. out of state;

-Availability of evidence, e.g. protected health information under HIPAA or 42 CFR Part 2;

-Other remedies for the victim e.g. do they have an open civil case or a divorce; and/or

-Whether the suspect already is incarcerated.

The shortage has gotten to be such a severe problem, folks are starting to take a look at what might be done about it. The North Dakota Legislature passed House Concurrent Resolution 3023 in April 2023, asking the judiciary to investigate what can be done.

Fremgen says the Supreme Court is assembling a task force to look into it and UND School of Law has been working to attract law students and retain law grads in the state.

In the summer of 2022, Stutsman County’s Board of Commissioners made upward revisions to assistant state’s attorney salaries from about $68,000 to about $73,000. That did not produce applicants.

More recently, the Board went up to about $83,000 for a starting attorney. Salaries are slated for review again on 18 July 2023. Fremgen says there’s been strong indication there will be another boost.