The district attorney was seeking a possible life sentence against Sammie Wyatt for stealing a pair of sneakers, designating him a habitual offender because of previous misdemeanor convictions. Prosecutors later relented. Photos by Gary Thompson Attorney Alina Kilpatrick, who became a licensed lawyer late last year, has been handling the contract attorney duties of her associate, who is a state assemblyman. Because of heavy caseloads in District Court, felony arraignments have been farmed out to a hearing master in a basement courtroom. Since 2000, the number of criminal cases in Clark County has increased by more than 31 percent, while Clark County judges handle far more cases than judges elsewhere.

Editor's note: Second of a three-part series

In January 2006, Sammie Wyatt was charged with misdemeanor theft of a pair of sneakers from a local Sears store.

At his first court appearance, prosecutors offered Wyatt a deal to plead guilty and serve 90 days in jail. After Wyatt rejected the offer through his public defender, the district attorney's office raised the stakes.

Prosecutors dismissed the misdemeanor charge against Wyatt and resubmitted the case as a felony.

According to the new criminal complaint, Wyatt's previous convictions for petty theft made him a habitual offender under state law, one who could be sentenced to life in prison, if convicted.

Wyatt's case is indicative of the unprecedented challenges facing lawyers who represent the poor in Clark County.

With relative parity in funding between the county's criminal defense and prosecution entities, District Attorney David Roger's office has sought other ways to gain leverage over public defenders and contract defenders.

The tactics of the district attorney's office include seeking habitual, or repeat offender, status against a record number of defendants and filing cases with the most severe charges possible, even if some are difficult to prove.

That style of aggressive prosecution forms the backdrop against which court officials will seek to improve the county's indigent-defense system, a review being undertaken in response to a six-month investigation by the Review-Journal.

At issue in particular is the county's contract-defender system, in which private attorneys are hired by judges to handle unlimited numbers of misdemeanor and felony cases that the public defender's office cannot because of a conflict of interest.

The newspaper's investigation found the system is beset by a severe lack of oversight that hurts both defendants and taxpayers.

Court Administrator Chuck Short said every aspect of the court system, including indigent defense, is influenced by how Roger's office operates.

"The way the DA's office charges defendants drives the system," Short said.

Roger responded by saying his prosecutors do what is required to keep the community safe.

"We don't want to flood the system with cases we can't take to trial," Roger said.

But a Review-Journal analysis of cases assigned to contract defenders in a recent one-year period showed the district attorney's office filed a lot of serious charges that didn't result in serious sentences.

Between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006, contract attorneys defended 11 high-level drug trafficking cases in District Court. The defendant in each case faced a possible life sentence, but eight got no prison time at all. The other three got sentences of 10 years, seven years, and six months.

Ten of the 11 cases were plea-bargained. In several cases, prosecutors admitted defendants could easily make what is called a "mere presence" defense of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In one case, a man found asleep next to a stash of drugs in an apartment that belonged to somebody else was charged with high-level trafficking. He eventually pleaded guilty to a far lesser charge and was sentenced to four months probation.

A similar trend was observed in cases the district attorney's office charged as first-degree kidnapping, which also carries a possible life sentence.

In some cases, prosecutors applied a strict reading of state law that allowed them to add kidnapping charges to crimes in which victims were held against their will for any period of time.

The newspaper's analysis of cases assigned to contract defenders showed that 21 of 39 cases that prosecutors charged as first-degree kidnapping stemmed from robberies or burglaries.

Those cases were lucrative for some contract defenders who by statute get paid an hourly fee of $100 when defendants face life in prison, in contrast to the flat monthly fee they get for defending all other cases.

Roger said his office is not responsible for how the county pays defense lawyers.

"We have to allege all charges we think we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt," Roger said. "That doesn't mean we should be writing blank checks to attorneys."

Cases in which defendants are defined as habitual criminals do not qualify contract defenders for an hourly fee. The county amended the contract in 2003 to clarify that point, after some attorneys began regularly billing the county for habitual cases.

Nevada's habitual criminal laws have been on the books for decades, but since taking office in 2002, Roger has applied them more often than his predecessors.

The district attorney's rationale is straightforward.

"Twenty percent of criminals commit 80 percent of crimes," Roger said. "They cannot be rehabilitated."

The district attorney's office is on pace this year to file more than 200 cases that seek habitual status against accused criminals. Just four years ago, prosecutors filed only 75 such cases.

Sammie Wyatt, 42, sat in jail almost eight months while Deputy Public Defender Casey Landis argued that prosecutors had erred in declaring him a habitual offender.

At one point, Wyatt, who is homeless, rejected an offer to plead guilty to burglary and serve 10 years in prison, Landis said.

Earlier this month, prosecutors dropped the felony case against Wyatt. He pleaded guilty to the original misdemeanor and was sentenced to time served.

"I know they're suggesting vindictive prosecution, but if we're operating within the parameters of the law, I don't think our prosecutors are being vindictive," Roger said.

Chief District Judge Kathy Hardcastle said habitual filings are impacting the court system.

"They do have discretion in how to charge, but they should do it within ethical bounds," Hardcastle said. "It can be argued whether upping the ante like that is a problem or not."

It is not just how cases are charged. It is how many are being charged.

A big electronic bulletin board at the county courthouse, showing the time and courtroom in which cases will be heard each day, is reminiscent of those showing arrivals and departures at a busy airport.

But if the Clark County court system were an airport, it would be cited for having too many flights and too few pilots.

Since 2000, the number of criminal cases filed in Clark County has increased by more than 31 percent, according to District Court figures.

The creation of new judicial positions has lagged far behind that growth.

"We are dramatically underjudged," said Short, who said that an increase in the police force also has led to more cases.

Roger said his office files charges resulting from 80 to 85 percent of the cases submitted to it by police.

Clark County judges are juggling a far higher number of cases per judge than their counterparts in other court systems in the region.

Clark County, for example, has about half the number of overall cases as Maricopa County, which contains Phoenix, but only one-third the judges, according to District Court data.

A lack of judges directly affects how cases go through the court system.

In 2005, there were 170 jury trials in District Court, a trial rate of only about 1.4 percent, despite Roger's rule that every prosecutor in his office take five cases to trial each year. The trial rate for cases handled by contract defenders in a recent one-year period was even lower.

To encourage plea bargains and weed out weak cases, the district attorney's office also has a program designed to present some defendants with the most lenient offer right away.

Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo said growing caseloads have made the court system even more geared towards plea bargaining.

"You want to get out of Justice Court as quickly as possible," Abbatangelo said. "Everybody is slammed."

District Court judges are so overwhelmed that they have farmed out felony arraignments to a hearing master who presides in a makeshift courtroom in the basement of the Regional Justice Center.

District Court Judge Donald Mosley said the judiciary is feeling the brunt of the number and nature of cases flooding the system.

"It's always a catch-up situation," Mosley said.