New Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison has announced her plan for clearing a backlog of nearly 2,000 misdemeanor cases amassed over the last two years — drop the charges.
Davison, who won the office with a campaign focused on public safety and promises of tough prosecution of the city’s dozens of daily misdemeanor crimes including theft and property destruction, says the move is necessary to “avoid overwhelming the criminal justice system with a onetime influx of cases.”
“Being thoughtful when reviewing cases is important, but the longer a case sits unresolved, it becomes harder to prosecute,” Davison’s chief prosecutor Natalie Walton-Anderson said in a press release on the decision. “That’s not helpful to crime victims or those accused. To best serve the interests of public safety, we must prioritize resources to review our recent referrals within a reasonable amount of time.”
Under the plan, the City Attorney’s office says it will work with the Seattle Municipal Court, the Seattle Police Department, and the Department of Public Defense as it winnows down the 1,921 cases to be dropped by the end of the year. On average, Davison’s office the cases have been in the system for 334 days with the oldest case now more than two years old.
The dropped prosecutions will be prioritized by category, according to the announcement, with the old Property Destruction, Theft, Criminal Trespass, and Non-DUI Traffic cases being wiped away.
In February, Davison announced a new “Close in Time” plan to prosecute more of those who are arrested in a faster process and dig her office out from a pandemic-bogged backlog of misdemeanor cases.
But a report from former U.S. Attorney Brian Moran who was hired by Davison to assess the Criminal Division shows Davison’s goals can not be reached without an attempt to clear the system.
According to Moran, the backlog was not only caused by the pandemic and has been, as critics of Davison’s promised prosecution-heavy approach have said, a long term problem made worse by a cumbersome, bureaucratic process of prosecuting decisions, challenges around police resources and witness contact, and clunky, time-consuming technology. A new computer case management system is reportedly coming online for the office soon.
Moran’s analysis says clearing the backlog will allow Davison’s office “to maintain close-in-time filing for present day cases.”
CHS reported here on Davison’s moves to reshape the office after her elimination of Pete Holmes in the primary as he sought his fourth term and defeat of police abolitionist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy in November powered by a “soft on crime” backlash in the city and concerns about street disorder.
Some, 5,000 cases are currently in the system to be reviewed, Moran says.
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Q13 reported last night that these drops included those arrested for looting and window-smashing downtown during the George Floyd riots. Disappointing if true. I think Seattle has a real problem on its hands with far too many activists who believe that breaking other peoples things is the only way to get results. This decision tends to reinforce their belief. How many people who said January 6 was treason or unforgivable are OK with the City Attorney dropping prosecuting George Floyd rioters?
Sorry, I’m no fan of property distruction, but if you don’t see the GIGANTIC difference between smashing windows and trying to overthrow the government, I don’t even know where to start with you.
Why do you think they are smashing the windows?? They thought they were part of a revolution to overthrow the system. When you get down to it they aren’t much different.
“When you get down to it” -> “via a massive leap of logic”
I don’t disagree. But but there was SOME influence. Yes, of course it was school yard-ish: “if antifa can break the law and riot, why not maga?” But it was intensely felt. And many who participated in jan 6th were partially motivated by it. (as anyone who was remotely aware of rightwing media leading up to it knows)
I think the riots were a huge step backwards. It’s impossible to distinguish what part of,the enormous jump in violence and crime that the nation has seen is attributable to COVID and what part to the riots, but it’s probably some. And that in turn has made it impossible to carry out anything approaching the police reforms that were urgently needed here or nationwide.
Obviously prioritizing the prosecution of those that took part would be an exercise in futility, if for no other reason then that it’s almost two years ago and Seattle bureaucracy is being buried under a crime wave that happening now. But IMO progressive obsession with protest oriented activism needs a serious rethink. And unfortunately instead, on the local-political, level Seattle is more apt to reward then penalized its leaders, CA race being a welcome exception.
The big difference is that what you believe is right and good so your destruction is justified. Interestingly the Capital Insurrections believed exactly the same thing. No difference. Both wrong.
I think sometimes you have to make some tough decisions in order to set the enterprise in a different direction. These old cases were building up for over two years. They were going to be tough to prosecute because they are stale. Yes, it would be great to prosecute them all as if new cases are not arriving on a daily basis, but they are, and in order to address those cases in a timely manner, these old ones must be dropped. Not ideal, but I think it signals a determination to reorient the office towards real-time prosecution and provide as many victims as possible with justice in the near term.
I agree. I’m disappointed that cases are being dropped, but I understand the need for this. I would hope, however, that any cases involving repeat offenders not be dropped, regardless of what the charge is.
It is clear that Pete Holmes was an incompetent City Attorney. Will he be held accountable? Probably not, except in the court of public opinion!
I agree with your statement
More leftist communistic thought leaders driving our city further into the dumpster fire.
Just FYI, Darin: “leftist communist thought leader” Anne Davidson is a Republican.
She is a Trump-era Republican.
Your political tribalism is lazy.
So is yours
Ahhhhhhhhhh… Ann Davison is a registered Republican… LOL!
No one in Washington State is a “registered” anything. Unlike most other places, we do not have a requirement here to register our political affiliation.
She inherited a mess from Pete Holmes. It will take time, but I am hopeful she can right the ship.
So you skewered Holmes for dropping charges, but she gets a pass?
She was voted in to be “tough on crime”, but she’s learning very quickly that the “tough on crime” idiocracy of the past decades has led to an unsustainable nightmare. At least Holmes wasn’t a liar.
Wrong! These are very old cases that built up because Pete Holmes and city politicians didn’t want to criminalize poverty and addiction. And the number of cases is huge. This backlog would be difficult to prosecute because facts, witnesses, and evidence have gone stale and doing so would require she devote all resources to the task. That would mean todays crimes would not be prosecuted for a long. That is simple math. So she is making the difficult decision to drop these charges while reorienting the office to allow realtime prosecution. I’m disappointed Obvious. You usually observe some nuance.
She ran on a “tough on crime” platform and said she would fully process the backlog. Not sure how else one could interpret that. If she was honest during her campaign that she would bulk drop charges within the first few months of taking office, she wouldn’t have survived the primary.
Typical GOP hand waving when they fail on their campaign promises within the first few months of their tenures: blame the previous guy.
Holmes dropped charges for 12 years essentially legalizing many crimes and turned Seattle into a social experiment. It failed. Davison is cleaning up Pete’s mess. Once out of the hole he created, I am hopeful she will hit the reset button and perform the duties of the city attorney to make Seattle safe and functional rather than a magnet for drug addicts, dealers and organized crime.