Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor announced Wednesday that his office will again “commence the review and filing of misdemeanors decriminalized by the City of Topeka.”
In a press statement, Taylor said his office would be the sole authority for prosecuting domestic battery cases — a position the Topeka City Council was seeking when it voted Tuesday night to repeal a city ordinance dealing with misdemeanor domestic battery.
Taylor — who said in Septemember that he would stop prosecuting misdemeanors committed within the city limits of Topeka, saying those should be the responsibility of City of Topeka attorneys — said he lamented the city council action that forced his action.
“I am deeply saddened by the City of Topeka’s unfortunate decision to place resources and political grandstanding before its constituents’ safety,” he said in a press statement.
“I am also deeply encouraged by the strong, angry response of the people of Topeka and Shawnee County,” Taylor continued. “The citizens of Topeka and Shawnee County have spoken and spoken clearly — public safety must be our government’s first priority. Public safety is the core responsibility of government and a responsibility I am deeply committed to upholding.
“Therefore, effective immediately my office will commence the review and filing of misdemeanors decriminalized by the City of Topeka. My office now retains sole authority to prosecute domestic battery misdemeanors and will take on this responsibility so as to better protect and serve our community.
“We will do so with less staff, less resources, and severe constraints on our ability to effectively seek justice. But we will do so willingly to preserve the public safety of all the citizens of Shawnee County.”
Taylor originally announced that his office would no longer prosecute misdemeanors committed within Topeka after the Shawnee County Commission cut his 2012 budget by nearly $350,000. Taylor said the budget cut would limit his staff to prosecuting all felonies and those misdemeanor crimes committed in Shawnee County outside of the Topeka city limits.
The City Council’s move Tuesday in removing the city ordinance against domestic battery was designed, in large part, to force Taylor to take on the prosecution of such cases as violations of existing state laws.
Taylor criticized the City Council action, in part because it added to an already large caseload his office had been working to reduce.
“Over the past three years, my office has consistently demonstrated through actions our commitment to public safety,” Taylor said in his statement.
“When I assumed office as the Shawnee County District Attorney I inherited a backlog of over 4,000 unfiled, unreviewed cases. Within a year this backlog had been reviewed and over 500 new cases were filed.
“Additionally, our office has seen a massive increase in the number of criminal cases we file. Since taking office we have seen an over 25 percent increase in adult criminal case filings, holding more people accountable for their actions and removing dangerous criminals off our community’s streets.
“Perhaps most notably, our office has worked diligently to combat domestic battery. Over the past three years, the Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office has increased misdemeanor domestic battery filings by over 80 percent and convictions by over 50 percent. All these changes were accomplished without any additional county budget funds and with a reduction in staff.
“This progress is now threatened by the Shawnee County Commission and Topeka City Council’s actions,” Taylor continued. “Public safety is being ignored by the leaders of this community and we will shortly see the consequences of their actions. A drastic reduction in staffing levels will impact the timely filing of criminal cases. It will impact what cases are filed. And it will impact the services provided to the public. In short, these decisions to put politics above public safety will make our community a less safe, less secure place to live.
“This negative impact on public safety is unacceptable. I will continue to work with the City Council, the County Commission, affected agencies, and the public to craft a more productive, more efficient, and ultimately more just solution to prosecuting crime and keeping our community safe.”
The story is developing. Check back later on CJOnline as additional information is developed.
Comments (37)
Add commentWell then,
Don't contribute to the political game playing like you did.
"Public safety is the core responsibility of government and a responsibility I am deeply committed to upholding."
Both sides on this were wrong and it should have never been played out publicly like it did.
.
Cry me a river Taylor this whole thing is an embarassment to
Topeka. I watched Headline news and the tag was "Town quits prosecution to save money" instead of the truth that D.A. and former commisioner could not play well with each other! Thank goodness we finally have city manager to manage this charlie foxtrot but the damage has been done. It is safe to presume Mr. Taylor will no longer be able to win a talent contest much less public office.
Thank you Mr. Taylor
Thank you Mr. Taylor for stepping up. Although I question your decision to immediately end the misdemeanor prosecutoral contract with the City of Topeka, I do commend you for taking the higher ground and not playing into the political games that the City Governing Body CHOSE to start playing.
Get a clue
Chad Taylor - YOU started this whole thing. Don't go blaming the City for putting people's safety at risk when it was YOU who announced - with no notice - that YOU would not prosecute domestic battery cases anymore. YOU are the one who's actions meant 30 batterers were released from jail. YOU, Chad Taylor, began the political game playing.
The person responsible for this whole ugly situation is our DA Chad Taylor. Don't let him off the hook for creating such a frightening mess.
Guess who
Blinked?
Well at least the Major Fox news outlet Called the city a
MAJOR AMERICAN CITY( after making a Dorthy and Kansas joke) And then put the blame Squarely on the the Politicians and NOT the Citizens of "THE MAJOR AMERICAN CITY of TOPEKA KANSAS!" It's in the city AND counties best interest to nip this in the bud KWIK!
DA
There are only so many hours in a day, and less staff means cases and
charges are likely not going to be filed in a timely manner. Try serving
additional warrants when people move and their whereabouts are unknown.
The county commission should be ashamed of their actions.
I guess the City of Topeka didn't want Vic (toilet caper) Miller presiding over
any misdemeanors comitted inside the city limits.
I'm amazed
At how some of you have completely given Taylor a free pass on this stuff. It was Taylor who caused this...The Shawnee County Commision is also to blame, but ultimately Taylor is who caused the mess by acting like a spoiled brat.
Taylor could have not played politics with the Commision and after the budget was passed, gone to the city and worked out a timeline to transition this stuff over, he could have worked out a deal with the city, he could have looked at wasted expenses his offices is using up, he could have brought in an arbitrator, he could have done a lot of things. However, what he did do was throw a temper tantrum that backfired on him.
He put this with almost zero notice in the laps of the city council members and now has placed blame on them.
Here's a way to stop spending so much money Taylor...Shut up, in the time it takes you or your staff to write these letters or have news confrences you could be reviewing case files. Stop spending salary dollars riding around in police cars...You are not a cop. If the detectives in this county are not competent enough to handle an investigation without you present then we need to get new detectives.
Violent crime in Topeka is up, your grandstanding more the Hecht did, and you let Vic Miller make you look like a fool. Stay out of the news, get into a courtroom and do what I pay you for.
County Commission
Isn't it funny the commission could find money for a roundabout ($250,000.00)
and millions of dollars on ball diamonds at Lake Shawnee, but couldn't
find enough money to fund the District Attorney's office to prosecute criminals.
Brilliant!
at the end of the day
it is STILL the victim that loses. I believe Chad Taylor has done, and will do his level best with what he has to work with. I believe he works for the victims of crime while trying to operate
under huge budget constraints. He stepped into the mess that was left to him and his office worked diligently to clear case. Not all cases brought to the DA are prosecutable, either lack of evidence or unwilling witnesses. Who hasn't seen the air of non cooperative 'victims' of late?
The council has allowed this to fester and become the boil on Topeka's arse it has.
The council members who voted with Stanley, AGAINST the citizens of Topeka should be the ones ousted NOW.
Such an embarrassment .
Taylor gave notice a couple
Taylor gave notice a couple of weeks before that he would stop prosecuting misdemeanors, everyone just ignored the warning.
Shame on the City for not doing it's part. The CITY is the entity that refused to prosecute DV cases, they didn't say they wouldn't prosecute the rest of the misdemeanors, just DV. The CITY was the one using it as a pawn.
Crazy
It amazes me that some people can't follow the logic behind the events that led up to this. It is unfortunate that the city council had to do this, but it is MORE unfortunate that the county could not afford to prosecute domestic battery and said they were going to cease, and it is MOST unfortunate that Shawnee County pulled the funding from the DA to do his job.
How many times are we going to witness cargage at the hands Shawnee County?!?!?! It's getting really old.
Like a sitcom wheresomeone comes in, gets two groups fighting, and then sneaks out during the fight. Sad.
Meanwhile, dummies say things like, "the city is allowing wife beating! Free game!" No, that's not how it works.
How can Taylor call what the
How can Taylor call what the city did grandstanding when it was him who started this whole thing by just stopping prosecution rather then approach the city to find a solution? Come on Taylor, how many domestic battery cases are handled a day that a month or so while a solution was found would have caused that big a cash crunch?
On another thing, CJ, September is spell wrong in the article.
No, Topekaguy. The City was
No, Topekaguy. The City was willing to take on the non-violent misdemeanors.
If the city was using it as a pawn, they would have decriminalizedALLl misdemeanors at the council meeting.
It's so dumb:
County commisioners: "We have to cut the budget"
DA: "I will have to stop presecuting misdemenaors."
City: "Uh, that includes, domestic violence...not cool. OK, we'll take all other misdemeanors, but Domestic Violence needs to be prosecuted by the county."
DA: "But I can't afford to prosecute all the misdemeanors."
City: "Hey, stop spinning it for the papers. We didn't say all misdemenaors. We'll pick up your slack on nearly all of the misdemeanors. We just want you to keep the domestic violence. Can you do that?"
DA: "Nope."
City: "*Sigh*...I guess we will force our hand."
Newspaper: "City of Topeka goes soft on wifebeating"
Idiots in the blogs: "Boo City of Topeka! Shame on you!"
Zorak
On another thing..... "spell" should be "spelled" in your comment
City Council Idiots
The idiots on the city council made a laughing stock out of our city nationally. Oh wait, they already have done thatmany times in the last few years.
The DA will do what he can, but this issue rests on the heads of the county commission, who can give a billion dollar corporation (Menards ) $250,000 without the blink of an eye , the CM, Mayor, and City Council for constantly gutting law enforcement and our basic services.
What cases will go unprosecuted because of lack of funding? Only time will tell.
Good Job, Boneheads.
Or
more accurately - his legal interns will have to start prosecuting domestic battery misdemeanors
Topeka is a messed up place.
Take this poster justtired.
He is fan of Vic Miller and Robert Hecht. Robert Hecht filed a bunch of appeals so he earn nearly $500,000 a year by earning extra fees for appealing cases to the court of appeals. But, yet, Hecht knew how to grandstand and get stupid people to follow him. He fought the helicopter and filed a bogus lawsuit (which would have been appealed by the way meaning he could make even more money) and idiots applaud him for saving money while he is stealing money from them on the appeal fees.
If Vic Miller was part of killing the ordinance as implied by the poster calling himself “justtired” then Miller has no business whatsoever being a judge. In my humble opinion it is not proper for a judge to be taking political stances or getting involved in political issues that could affect cases they would rule over. I do not know if Miller was behind this and thought this was more of Counsel issue. I am assuming the poster who calls himself “justtired” is wrong in referencing Vic Miller and that surely Mr. Miller would not allow himself as the new City judge to be sucked into these kinds of politics..
Taylor clearly did the right thing and has put an end to it. I am sure stupid Topekans would have liked this to drag on to make their silly dull lives more exciting but anyone saying Taylor got one up or that he backed down just does not understand the concept of right and wrong.....
Dear Topeka
Hows things going
NB
Hmmm...
"I will continue to work with the City Council..." suggests that you ever were working with the City Council to begin with. Funny how I never saw you at a single one of the Council meetings since you made this decision. Perhaps you are referring to your attempt to extort the City for a one time payment of $350,000 for your office.
What?
What are the 12 or more Attorneys on the City Payroll doing that they can't take on these cases? Traffic cases and petty crimes? They should be handling the City cases. If not why even have them around?
@ JustTired- You forgot to mention that taking back
the prosecuting of domestic battery cases will take time away from his ability to go to places like Duncan, Oklahoma and get face time on major television networks.
What I do not understand is this.
What I do not understand is this, if the city could not, did not have the resources, nor never tried to develop the resources to prosecute these crimes, why did they put them in the books in the first place, they do look worse then the DA, I suppose Taylor did not believe they were all fakes, and that the laws on the books of the City basically mean nothing, unless they can find a way to make money on them. I have lived here since 1978, except for 6 years, I have felt for a long time, that we should do away with the city government, and go to an all county government, we would have better crime control, better roads, and much better snow clean up on the road. Ever noticed after a book snow storm, the minute you get out of city limits, the road get better. Plus, most city commissioners have almost always been fools, and now we have the clown Dan Stanley, a mega jerk running things for our senile mayor. This is just another mess of many envolving the city of Topeka over the years, maybe someone should invade and occupy us!
Shame on the county
Shame on the county commission for not taking public safety seriously. They can spend $250,000 on a roundabout but not to prosecute domestic violence. Shame on the city council for not taking the DAs warnings seriously and not dealing with the matter in a responsible, adult way. Shame on the interim city manager for acting like a child about this whole issue instead of working with the commission and the DA to resolve it. The fact remains that the DA won't be able to prosecute all the cases he wants to prosecute due to the budget cut. Now that he has to prosecute the city's cases, what should he cut? Maybe he shouldn't prosecute property crimes like car burglaries. Then everyone will scream about higher insurance rates. Maybe he shouldn't prosecute shoplifting but then all the businesses who lose money (and pass it on to us) will be upset. The city council should give the DA some money for working its cases. The county commission needs to get its priorities straight. Geez . . .
DOMESTIC BATTERY
Since the topeka Taxpayers ALL live in Shawnee County and since we comprise about 75% of the taxpayers who support the County and since a lot of what we spend to support County programs without any benefit to city populous. Does it NOT make GOOD sense to come up with the best program in the country and since city dwellers pay such a large proportion of the county budget. LETS HAVE A REALLY GREAT COUNTY PROGRAM AND FINANCE IT FROM OUR COUNTY BUDGET of which we are generous monetary supporters.
CHECK YOUR TAX INFORMATION Just note how much you pay the county and much of it does NOT support city residents. Why should we be asked to duplicate a service that is already supported by city tax payers.
Don't kid yourself BAB,
Don't kid yourself BAB, someone was whispering in Dan Stanley's ear. On the radio Stanley said if it was up to him he would have the City take on the prosecution of these cases. Then he changes his stance and advises the Council to repeal the ordinance. Don't you find it coincendital that Stanley's position changes after he hires Vic Miller. As a Commissioner Miller made the motion to cut the budget of the DA. Miller is never satisfied to leave well enough alone. Now he is across the street, spewing his venon from there, only now he is the puppeteer pulling Stanley's strings, not the front man.
Money is the reason. . .
Years ago when DUI's were first given mandatory jail time many cities repealed their DUI statutes to save money. Up to that point they were able to just fine the defendant and not give any jail time. When the change was made to require actual service of jail time it started to cost many cities money for the space their defendants occupied in the county jail. It had nothing to do with public safety. . . it was all about money. Many cities look to the city court as a money making operation and little more. It might appear to be the same issue with Topeka and domestic battery. Domestic battery has mandatory jail time just as with DUI. Maybe the county attorney ought to continue to prosecute, but maybe, just maybe, the city of Topeka needs to pull it's head out of the money trough of the municipal court long enough to realize that not all duties owed to the citizen of the fair city should be tied to a profit motive.
For those who blame Chad
For those who blame Chad Taylor, you're dumb. You can't prosecute cases without prosecutors. You can't employ prosecutors without money. Try mowing your lawn without a lawn mower.
For those of you who blame the city, you're also dumb. If you are staffed for a certain case load and that case load suddenly increases by a lot, there is no way you can prosecute them. It's impossible.
Chad Taylor didn't start this. Neither did the city. The bottom line is this: If the county commission wants misdemeanors prosecuted, they need to provide the DA with enough funds to do so. Chad Taylor didn't pass it off to the city becuase he's lazy, and the city didn't decline to prosecute them because of politics. The CC wrongly assumed that everyone could just work a little harder and get through all those cases. They were wrong, and now people will lose their jobs and cases will go un-prosecuted because of it.
You can't prosecute criminals without prosecutors and you can't employ prosecutors without money. Because they have painted everyone into an impossible corner with their ridiculous budget cuts, there will probably be a number of people laid off now. 100% of the blame falls on the county commision for cutting such an important budget to our community.
PS, to rationalmama: every time you post you say that Chad Taylor dumped the cases on the city without warning. You discredit your whole arguement by continuing to spew out false statements. Giving the misdemeanors to the city is EXACTLY what he said he would do if his budget was cut too much.
frogprince, got it right.
Miller started it, Ensley voted for it (the budget reduction), and the City made bad decisions because of it. Stanley, the flip flopper, said he wanted to prosecute, then convinced a majority to vote against city prosecution. When the new City Council becomes a reality, and the majority are voted out, then Miller and Stanley will go, and we can start fresh.
“I am deeply saddened ...
“I am deeply saddened by the City of Topeka’s unfortunate decision to place resources and political grandstanding before its constituents’ safety,” he(Chad Taylor) said in a press statement.
Really Chad????? Who started the grandstanding on this issue? Who went to Oklahoma to get in front of cameras? Talk about the name calling. Once again, I am disappointed about your spoiled little boy attitude. You got your hands slap for trying to dump your budget issues on another entity. Everyone is feeling the budget cruch, everyone! You had touted how domestic violence belonged in the county system and then tried to dump it. You are a politician - you love speaking out of both sides of your mouth.
Hopefully you will have some competition next year for your position!