Connect with us

Courts

La Crosse County catching up with court cases

Published

on

They could still use more prosecutors, but the staff of the La Crosse County district attorney’s office is gradually getting control of a heavy caseload. 

Deputy DA Jessica Skemp reports to a county board committee that staffers are back at the courthouse after a year of “hybrid” staffing, where some worked from home on a rotation system during the pandemic.  COVID-19 hit shortly after the county was assigned two additional prosecutors by the state of Wisconsin.

“The state budget gave us authorization for 10 full-time equivalent attorney positions,” Skemp says. “For many, many years we have been operating at 8 full-time equivalents, which was about 60 per cent of our caseload staffing.”

A recent study said La Crosse County could use up to 13 prosecutors.  Skemp says the county has a jury trial scheduled this month, for the first time in over a year.  

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *