At Northampton County Council's July 18, 2024. meeting, District Attorney Stephen Baratta discussed his staffing. He indicated he was slotted for 22 full-time assistants when he first took office but converted two of those positions to part-time slots. He indicated his "sweet spot" for dealing with what he calls a "significant backlog" is to have 17 or 18 full-time prosecutors and two part-time prosecutors.
As of yesterday, he reports having a covey of 17 prosecutors, which I'm listing below. He hopes to hire one or two law school graduates over the summer. He told County Council that he will seek no additional money beyond what is allotted to him this year and plans to seek no increase in next year's budget.
NorCo ADA List 8.5.24 by BernieOHare on Scribd
19 comments:
Thanks for this, Bernie. On the website, the link for the list of ADAs doesn’t work. It is terrible that Baratta didn’t show courtesy to those who have worked in that office for a few years. Wonder how morale is since the change in DAs.
What happened to ADA Adrianne Doll?
This guy just comes off as a nasty person. Very unlikeable
@ 12:07 AM. All signs are that morale is low. Some forget that Houck’s office was actually fully staffed early last year. It was staffed through some mutual respect between the DA and ADAs. Staffing collapsed as county ‘leadership’ failed to respond to Houck requests to help him retain his people (within his budget, as other counties had done - now they’re all on board for whatever Baratta wants to do with his budget). Baratta’s win was the final straw, as he viciously and inaccurately criticized line ADAs along with leadership.
Baratta then failed to reach out to the existing crew as his term approached, sending some ‘get lost’ letters - disrespect. This is a team that worked very hard to keep performing the office’s mission with limited staffing. Finally, he came in and began his ego trip.
This is not a person who earns respect. He doesn’t lead, he dictates and focuses on himself over the people he’s sworn to protect, including the vast majority of victims. All his campaign nonsense about race, throwing shade…look at his new top-tier leadership. Just recently he sent an ADA in to do his bidding. Now he changed his mind, so he throws that ADA - who followed instruction given to him - under the bus.
To think only 18 months ago there was a DAs office in NorCo with leadership and skill at every level. How quickly baseless criticism and egomania can decimate an office of public servants.
The pay will always suck - but Baratta gave a punch to the gut of the honor and pride many felt during the Morganelli and Houck administrations. They weren’t perfect, but their leadership sits in sharp contrast to Baratta…and it shows.
The recipe for Baratta to control his staffing and backlog is to utilize a method practiced by other DA offices.
Identify your 10 busiest Magisterial Courts and start sending your ADA’s to preliminary hearings at these courts to accept plea bargains at that level. The caseloads compiling in the courthouse would be cut by 30% within 3 months.
Other counties utilize this practice. Instead of demanding more staff at taxpayer expense, learn to be a better user of your existing resources.
“Tax payer expense” is a hoax propagated by people who don’t understand county finances.
Is Lahoud even getting what he paid for?
Same asshole in high school- never changed
9 Deputies?
Let’s be clear, Houck was doing the same thing in sending DAs to the prelims. It’s only as the year went on and council wouldn’t permit him to compensate them correctly did they start becoming short staffed did they no longer go to every prelim. The president judge also doesn’t allow for some cases to be settled at the magistrate.
Crime statistics drop with fewer prosecutors. That's fact. We don't need as many prosecuters as we have. Stop feeding the court complex beast. Let's feed veterans or house the homeless instead of paying more lawyers. Our priorities are really effed up.
Baratta is doing a good thing by hiring his own detective. The ones on staff aren’t very experienced, talented, or accomplished. If they were they wouldn’t work for the lower salary.
@ 10:08 AM Crime does not drop. Charges may drop as police recognize that fewer crimes can be prosecuted, but that's not the same thing. Your argument is if we let the public know we can't prosecute, criminals will calm down and be law abiding. If you believe that, then no further rebuttal is necessary.
I didn't realize Tressler was still employed by Norco? I know she filed a lawsuit.
Wow. So let people commit crimes and not prosecute them. Thats what happened during Covid, how did that work out? Your hypothesis is totally devoid of facts. If you stop prosecuting crime that doesn’t mean it will go away. It will encourage more crime since there is no consequences.
7:33 am, this is 12:07 am. I'm glad to know that there are others who see the DA's office in the same light. As far as I'm concerned (and I do think it is becoming obvious), Baratta wanted this position just to call himself DA. I haven't heard of him doing any heavy lifting, rather it sounds as though he wants to divide the department and get rid of those he fears may not be loyal to him. (Read paranoid.) He has demeaned and belittled veterans, while acting as though he inherited some mess, rather than acknowledging that he either fired or alienated (while a judge) people to the point they didn't want to work for him. Just renaming positions (from chief to senior) shows he is on some sort of show-only power trip. I am very, very happy that there are many people who contribute to these threads who seem to know Baratta is a phony. It would be interesting to know how the other judges viewed him when they had to work with him.
Who’s the other ADA with a DUI ?
For some reason unknown to me law school particularly seems to either attract or grow a bunch of assholes. Some of those assholes following graduation grow up to be fine people and others remain assholes and advance to higher positions and even judgeship.
7:27 am, the attorneys I know are good men and women who truly want to do what is best for their client and community. Many have a willingness to help through volunteering and taking part in civic activities. It is easy to spot the lawyer who truly believes in justice and those who want to puff out their chests and let everyone know he/she is a lawyer. The ego trip attorneys (Baratta being the posterboy) are the ones who give a bad name to those who truly want to improve their community.
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