Bizarre, Criminal law, Politics, Society

Topeka District Attorney Refuses to Prosecute Domestic Abuse Cases After His Budget is Cut

Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor has created a firestorm of controversy in Topeka, Kansas by announcing that his office will no longer prosecute domestic abuse cases and other misdemeanors due to a lack of funds. Notably, Taylor was faced with a 10 percent budget cut, but elected to simply bar prosecution of crimes like domestic abuse.

Ten percent is a significant cut, but this seems rather draconian and dramatic as a response. I wonder, if the cuts continue, if Taylor will be drawing the line at first-degree murder and send those second-degree cases to mediation.

According to this report, Taylor gave city officials an offer after the outcry: give me $350,000 and I will start prosecuting domestic abuse and other crimes again. The city is trying to take the money out of the jail budget.

In the meantime, Topeka has shot to the top of the list for spouse abusers as the one number vacation spot of the nation.

Source: Fox4KC

34 thoughts on “Topeka District Attorney Refuses to Prosecute Domestic Abuse Cases After His Budget is Cut”

  2. pete, I did a quick check and could not find helicopters in the Bible either, although boats are mentioned. There was something about a guy named Noah…..

  3. i don’t see anything in the constitution about helicopters. so the federal government has no business operating helicopters.

  4. There’s a difference in federal agency responses to budget cuts.

    Cut Social Security’s budget, and a manager who’d sell his grandmother for statistics, will say “Yessir, we can do that. Staff, work smarter, not harder.” He’ll defend the increase in work ratio to his troops, while pissing and moaning to the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (http://www.ncssma.org/).

    Cut the Coast Guard’s budget, and the Commandant gets quoted in the newspaper: “We can only afford to operate boats, not helicopters. If you have to sink, do it near a big city. If you’re sinking in the middle of a Great Lake, you’re screwed.”

    Congress thanks Social Security for flogging its employees until morale improves, and then it passes a supplemental appropriation for the Coast Guard.

  5. well….if they only respond to the things they want to respond to….they are already privatized…..the question is, should they be subsidized by people who don’t get the benefit of the service?

  6. just wait somebody will get the bright idea to privatize the prosecutors office.

  7. if our governing bodies are so personally vested that they are blind to making changes when things don’t work, to the point of needing threats to be heard….then we already have an abusive situation. So now, this guy is going to set up ANOTHER set of victims by denying the right of law to those who have been victimized in their domestic situation.

    Smart. And the poor overworked (has a job) lawyer will get a raise and continue to look at those he is supposed to be helping through his WORK….as mere ends to a personal gain. Meanwhile….he doesn’t get that by witholding his job performance he has NOT DONE HIS JOB, still gotten paid, and has held those who pay for that service via tax dollars…..hostage.

  8. Without prosecutions, you can’t have convictions, and without convictions, you don’t have convicts.

    Not to worry, the prison-industrial complex will send its lobbyists to sort this out in no time…

  10. Anonymously Yours1, October 5, 2011 at 6:36 am

    I think the point that is being missed…He is being hit with a loss of money, therefore the inability to have cases prosecuted…This is a very important and serious issue….and one that should be addressed and soon….
    ——————————————-
    He is being faced with a loss of money. Therefore his response is to threaten. What is the average renumeration of lawyers today?

    I have been a nurse for 20+ years. My salary has been cut to less than the amount I was making upon graduation. My workload has increased 150%…sometimes more. 99% of the working population of the USA have been raided and treated like cattle by the government and private side of the economy for years.

    This asshole can kiss my grits. He personifies abuse.

    http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

  11. They’re cutting budgets… while funding the vigilante groups which are currently patrolling the streets of America and meting out “justice” as they see fit… It’s the new American way.

  14. Frankly:

    Your right but most misdemeanors prosecute themselves. Cop testifies; defendant says he’s sorry; Judge sentences. Domestic abuse is different. Neither side concedes an inch and unless the cop caught the perp in the act or they’ve reconciled we need some lawyering to figure out just what happened. Otherwise it’s one’s word against the other on who started the fracas,a nd we’ll inevitably see these folks again.

  15. But the story says misdemeanors so it is not just domestic abuse. I assume he highlighted that one to get the attention of the public – it worked!

    We can expect a lot more of this type of response as our “tax cuts solve all problems fever” rages like a Dark Ages plague.

  16. mespo,

    I think we are on the same page…I think it is a very poor choice to pick…However, this is one of those hot items that folks don’t want to admit happens male or female…and Domestic assault is committed more often by women than reported….

    Lets take for instance…drunk driving….if he had refused to prosecute this…MADD would have been all over him like stink on…..you get the point…The headlines would have read very differently…..I have seen representatives of MADD sitting in the courtroom evaluating how judges handling cases do….in DA cases….they usually have a rep from the District Attorneys Office in the Court room….

    I think all he is trying to do is make a point and get funding…Politically motivated I am sure…

  17. Personally, I’d start by declining to prosecute simple possession of illegal drugs, prostitution, vagrancy, drunk in public, minor traffic offenses, and gambling crimes. That would get the good church people of Kansas undies in a knot and guarantee a tenfold increase in my budget. If I agreed to prosecute blasphemy, I’d get a twenty-fold one. To refuse to prosecute crimes of violence is unconscionable.

  18. I think the point that is being missed…He is being hit with a loss of money, therefore the inability to have cases prosecuted…This is a very important and serious issue….and one that should be addressed and soon….

    Lets say that he declined Drunk Driving….MADD would be all over it like fly’s on flypaper in the south….

  19. Has anybody checked with this guys’ wife? Sounds to me she might have a few bruises.

    There has to be a reason, besides budget cuts, that he chose domestic abuse.

  20. Managers in government always know to threaten the most visible and urgent of their services to the public when faced with threats to their budget. The first to go are typically police, firefighters, and teachers. This tactic by the DA is no different.

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