METH EATING AWAY AT MOFFAT COUNTY

Growing Problem Spurs Increases in Many Types of Crime

CRAIG - Gram by gram, methamphetamine is weighing down the Moffat
County judicial system.

It's clogging dockets and keeping prosecutors, probation officers and
judges busier than ever dealing with drug offenders in small
communities.

Local methamphetamine cases, which were virtually absent from court
files before 2000, have ballooned in the past few years. A record
number of felony cases were filed in the county last year. Chief
Deputy District Attorney Dave Waite, who recently went into private
practice, prosecuted nearly all of them.

"We had 230 felony cases in Moffat County in 2003," Waite said. "The
reality is, I think we had 230 because of meth."

The drug was a factor in cases including burglaries, stolen credit
cards and check fraud, said Mason Siedschlaw, a probation officer for
the 14th Judicial District.

"In a huge percentage of those cases, they're doing it to buy dope,"
Siedschlaw said, noting he is spending more and more time supervising
drug offenders.

"I've been here in Craig doing this work since 1994, and it has never
been to the extent it is now," he said.

The penalties for methamphetamine crimes can be severe: up to six
years in prison for possession of a gram or more. However, large
caseloads force prosecutors to prioritize and settle some cases with
plea bargains.

Waite said he doesn't prefer that route but prosecutors' hands are
often tied. With 230 cases last year, the district attorney's office
would have had to schedule four or five trials every week.

"Even if you had one trial a week, which the courts aren't set up to
do, nor are we set up to do, you're just not going to get to all of
them. It's just impossible," Waite said.

Therefore, many methamphetamine offenders are sentenced to probation,
rehab or community corrections. Once on probation, individuals are
subject to random drug tests and increased supervision.

But probation often fails.

"For the people who aren't staying clean, a lot of them are continuing
to commit a large number of crimes to support their habits, whether
it's stealing checks or writing hot checks or stealing credit cards or
burgling stuff and pawning it," Siedschlaw said.

Community-based sentences often don't solve the underlying drug
problems, and repeat offenders frequent the courts until probation is
no longer an option.

Waite said prosecutors are dealing with people who are in the midst of
an addiction.

"But we're not shutting down the supply," he said. "We're not going
after the dealers; we're just not making a dent as far as I'm
concerned in that area."