COUNTY TO WHITTLE ITS DRUG CASELOAD

The Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office warned police officers in
a recent e-mail memo that it plans to "crack down" on which drug cases it
will prosecute.

"We will now adopt the policy that we will only take a case in which we
have `a reasonable likelihood of success at trial ...,' " stated the memo
sent to police from the DA's felony drug supervisor.

"We have to cull 36 cases to try from approximately 200 Traffickers, 350
Sellers, 25 Habitual Felons, and the 2000+ defendants charged with possession."

The tougher policy, first reported Tuesday by the Observer's news partner,
WCNC, means anywhere from 100 to 200 cases a year might be rejected for
prosecution, according to the DA's office.

But Mecklenburg Assistant District Attorney Bill Stetzer, who wrote the
memo and heads a team of seven drug prosecutors, said thousands of
defendants charged with drug offenses would still be prosecuted each year.
Most of those cases never go to trial, he said, because defendants plead
guilty.

Still, the DA's office plans to tighten its requirements for the cases it
accepts -- whether they reach a trial or plea out. Prosecutors also plan to
ask each police officer whether they questioned the defendant.

The memo said a study found that Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers did
not try to question the defendants in 45 percent of drug cases.

"We're only going to accept for prosecution the cases we have a good chance
of winning," Stetzer told the Observer. "This will give us a better chance
of getting convictions."

The memo, obtained by WCNC, did not surprise veteran police Sgt. S.C.
Voorhees, a vice officer who has worked for the force for 11 years.

"It's nothing new to people who have been around the system for years," he
said. "We can't try every case that we want to. It puts it back on us. ...
It makes us have to be smarter."

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police made 2,730 drug arrests in the first 11 months
of 2004, according to the latest statistics available. Meanwhile, Stetzer
said the drug prosecutors handle about 6,000 cases involving about 3,000
defendants each year. Most defendants plead guilty, he said.

Courtrooms set aside for trials are limited.

Stetzer said his team of drug prosecutors only have 18 weeks a year to try
cases. That means they can handle about 36 drug trials a year.

"The new policy will give us time to focus on the strong cases instead of
spending our resources on cases we can't win," Stetzer said.

Stronger cases, Stetzer said, would give his prosecutors more leverage to
obtain guilty pleas in drug cases. Prosecutors would also have more success
in those cases that do go to trial, he said.

"It seems a terrible waste of time (both yours and ours) for us to take a
case we shouldn't have accepted, and let it run its course through the
system only to dismiss it later," the memo said.

"This is a choice that we make in today's society and the DA, I believe, is
exercising his best judgment," Mecklenburg County commissioners' Chairman
Parks Helms, a Democrat, told WCNC. "It's a question of resources and the
ability to apply those resources to the worst cases, and sometimes that
means you negotiate a plea."

But for some who live in neighborhoods plagued by drug dealers, the news
wasn't encouraging. James McCoy, 52, said he's been trying to get police to
stop the two drug dealers in his neighborhood in west Charlotte for more
than a year.

"I see the cops lock up the people, then a week later I see them again,"
said McCoy, who serves as president of the Heather Glen Neighborhood
Association.

"For them to even say that they're going to limit the prosecution of major
drug dealers, that's sending the wrong message to the drug dealers and the
community that's already burdened by apathy."