Letter to South King County Mayors — August 22, 2022

August 22, 2022

Dear Mayors,

We learned from reporters about your August 4 statement regarding the rise in violence crime in your communities. We are happy to discuss how our office handles criminal prosecutions. We welcome open conversations and collaboration, and, in the future, we invite you to contact us directly if you have questions about our policies, practices, or work.

As an office made up of residents and fellow community members, we share the same concerns about the rise in violent crime over the last several years. This phenomenon is not localized to King County or Washington State. It happened across the country following the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. This increase in violent crime in our community and our country is troubling, and we must continue to work together to address it. However, we must also recognize that multiple factors contribute to crime rates: domestic violence, behavioral health disorders, the widespread availability of guns, population increases, substance abuse and addiction, and decreased police staffing, to name but a few. Prosecutors can only respond to police case referrals — we cannot investigate crime. But our commitment to working in collaboration with police has not waivered. We want to continue to work with you and your departments.

Just as police resources have forced agencies to make hard decisions in order to focus on responding to the most serious crimes, we too have prioritized prosecuting violent crime and repeat property offenders. But that is not to say we ignore other crimes. We charge lower-level property crimes every day; both in south King County and in all parts of the county. Here is a look at each of the charges we filed in July.

We are proud of our deputy prosecutors and staff who have been in the courthouse — hard at work every day of the pandemic — filing and handling felony cases and delivering accountability for victims and striving to make our communities safer. These are some of the hardest working public servants in our state and we believe that if you shadowed our employees on any given day, you would see how dedicated they are to protecting public safety.

On average, our office files 20–30 adult felony cases each day, with the majority involving violent offenses or repeat offenders (including property crime). And our deputy prosecutors are in the courthouse each day, working closely with detectives, including at night and on weekends, to draft and approve search warrants, help with case development, respond to homicide scenes, and attend autopsies.

Our deputy prosecutors are also trying cases every day. On the day of your statement, there were 10 felony trials in process in adult Superior Court. These trials included three murders, an attempted murder, three sexual assault cases, and a domestic violence arson. Today, of the 14 trials in process, three are murder cases, three are rape cases, two are child molestation cases, two are violent gun crimes, one is a first-degree assault stabbing, another is a luring case, and the remainder (vehicular assault and felony DUI) are defendants with repeat criminal histories.

In reviewing the state of the criminal justice system, it is important to note the unavoidable changes — separate from our control — that were required in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Washington State Supreme Court, following public health guidelines, largely closed courts throughout the state during parts of the pandemic. This included a lengthy suspension of jury trials and plea hearings. The Supreme Court also limited the issuance of warrants for defendants who failed to appear in court, meaning that some defendants were at large in the community while their charged criminal cases were ongoing — and prosecutors could not make warrant motions. Even today, court capacity is reduced because of ongoing State Supreme Court limitations. Pre-pandemic, roughly 200 cases would be resolved annually by jury trials in King County Superior Court. This year, assuming there are no additional public health restrictions, we are hoping to reach 100 cases resolved by jury trial.

To your questions about juvenile cases, it is important to highlight a few key points. First, our Juvenile Division has zero backlog. The Division works hard to file every case within 24 hours of police referral. King County also serves hundreds of youth, families, and victims, at no cost to these individuals, through community-based restorative justice programs and services.

Second, at the same time, our deputy prosecutors routinely file felony charges against juveniles who commit serious violent offenses. For example, when juveniles threaten people with guns — at school or other locations — we file felony charges when we have the evidence to do so. This reflects our shared values of addressing criminal behavior with immediate and clear accountability. It’s also worth noting that over decades we have seen a significant decrease in juvenile referrals from law enforcement. This long-term trend is supported by the overwhelming research and science that shows that upstream intervention reduces crime and recidivism and keeps communities safe.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has a long history of serving and advocating for victims and crime survivors. In a recent reflection of those values, we added 10 advocates to our office’s victim services team and created a new Director of Victim Services. These actions reflect our strong commitment to crime victims and survivors.

Your letter also questions our case filing levels. We want to provide some context that may be helpful.

As noted above, prosecutors cannot investigate crimes. As a result, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office can only charge felony cases that are first referred to us by law enforcement investigators. In that context, it is worth noting that felony referrals from your police departments dropped 28.5% between 2019 and 2021. With fewer felony cases referred to our office, there is corresponding decrease in the number of felony cases our office can review for a charging decision and file in court.

Looking at raw numbers of cases, here are the percentage decreases in the felony police referrals to our office comparing 2019 to 2021:

• Auburn: 28.9% decrease

• Black Diamond: 48% decrease

• Enumclaw: 9% decrease

• Federal Way: 29% decrease

• Kent: 24% decrease

• Renton: 36.7% decrease

• Tukwila: 10.5% decrease

Comparing the first six months of 2022 to the first six months of 2019, felony case referrals from these departments dropped 24%.

This is not happening in all cities. Some police departments in King County saw an increase in felony referrals from 2019 to 2021. These departments include:

• Bothell: 22% increase

• Des Moines: 2.5% increase

• Mercer Island: 45% increase

• Pacific: 16% increase

Comparing the first six months of 2022 to the first six months of 2019, felony case referrals from these departments increased 25%.

To the extent that you are concerned about the reasons cases are declined, there are four primary reasons that this happens:

• Even where police do excellent work and conduct thorough and effective investigations, there are still cases where the evidence is insufficient to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. As prosecutors, we are legally and ethically precluded from filing charges when the evidence is legally insufficient. This is by far the most common reason we decline a case. This scenario is frustrating for all involved. We all share the goal of keeping our communities safe and we will always work in collaboration with you to protect public safety. Accordingly, when we have declined a case for insufficient evidence, we are always willing to reevaluate that decision in light of new information obtained by law enforcement.

• The second most common reason for a case decline is when a police department makes a statutory referral. These are cases that are referred to prosecutors as mandatory reports required by statute, but where law enforcement does not actually believe that prosecution is warranted. While these cases are not intended for prosecution, they are included in the case decline numbers.

• There are also times when our deputy prosecutors ask police/investigators for more information because we need additional evidence in order to determine whether a case is legally sufficient for charges. Unfortunately, we often do not hear back in response to these requests. In fact, the return rate on requests for more information is roughly 1 in 20 case referrals, and this is the third most common reason for declines on cases from your jurisdictions.

• When cases do not meet the requirements for a felony filing, they can sometimes still be filed as misdemeanors by city attorneys in municipal court. In this situation, we formally decline the case as the mechanism for returning it to law enforcement so that it can be referred to city prosecutors. This is the fourth most common reason for felony declines on cases from your jurisdictions. But with these cases as well, we’re always willing to discuss cases with law enforcement, and there are examples where those discussions lead to reevaluations.

These decline reasons remain consistent when looking at the last six months and are also consistent with the data we shared with you in December 2021. Referrals from the police departments of Auburn, Federal Way, Kent, and Renton make up more than a quarter of the felony filings charged by our office, even though those four cities only make up 18% of King County’s total population. Our decline rate is lower for these four police departments than any other agencies. For violent crimes, that decline rate is even lower.

We hope this contextual data is helpful. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office remains committed to strong working relationships with you and your police departments. We charge felony crimes from south King County cities daily; and that was our practice before and throughout the pandemic and continues to be the case. Our deputy prosecutors worked throughout the pandemic and were in court consistently when the courts were open. And they are now back in trial every day prosecuting serious violent crimes and repeat offenders.

In response to other points in your statement:

• We all agree that fentanyl poses a serious danger to our community. Our office remains committed to prosecuting illicit and dangerous drug dealing. We consistently charge drug dealing cases when they are referred to us and are determined to be legally sufficient. We charged 26 of those cases in July. We also charge controlled substance homicides when we can prove drug dealers are responsible for killing people who overdose.
• The Washington State Supreme Court and state lawmakers determined that simple drug possession cases — including cases involving fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin — are no longer felonies. As a result, these cases are no longer referred to our office for felony charges (and haven’t been since February 2021).
• Your concerns for House Bill 1054 should be addressed to state lawmakers.
• Jail booking restrictions and jail operation decisions are handled separately from our office.

We understand that law enforcement agencies are suffering from historically low staffing levels. We are working to address the impacts of the pandemic and the rise in violence and we want to keep working collaboratively to address the most serious cases and prolific offenders. It would benefit the public for us to work together even more closely and the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is unequivocally committed to partnering with you.

Sincerely,

Dan Satterberg

King County Prosecuting Attorney