Prosecutor’s Office
William A. Forsyth, Kent County Prosecutor
82 Ionia Avenue NW, Suite 450
Grand Rapids, MI 49503-2266
Phone: (616) 632-6710
Fax: (616) 632-6714
Hours: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Monday - Friday
Mission Statement
To protect the rights, safety, and security of Kent County residents through diligent efforts to prosecute criminal offenses in Kent County.
Overview
The Prosecuting Attorney appears for the State or County in all criminal prosecutions in Circuit Court and District Court, as well as appearances in delinquency, neglect, mental incompetency, and adult guardianship proceedings in both Probate Court and the Family Division of the Circuit Court. The Prosecuting Attorney shares jurisdiction with the Michigan Attorney General for any crime that is committed in Kent County, but is independent of that State office. The Prosecuting Attorney is an elected official with a four-year term, chosen at the time of the Presidential election, on the partisan ballot.
The office is divided into the following divisions: Criminal, Appellate, Family Law (see Judicial functional area page D-106) and Juvenile. Each division has specific attorneys assigned to it and is structured to serve that division’s unique needs. Additionally, the Victim/Witness Unit of the office performs services for victims of crime as mandated under the Crime Victims Rights Act.
The Prosecuting Attorney’s office is responsible for other legal functions, including:
- Keeping victims notified of case status, their right to participate, and to protect/• preserve their rights
- Providing information on juvenile offenders to the Kent Intermediate School District
- Representing the County in forfeiture actions.
In 2008 the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office wrote 1,744 high misdemeanor warrants for the offense of Driving on a Suspended License 2nd Offense (hereinafter referred to as DWLS). DWLS 2nd is a high misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in the Kent County Jail. DWLS 1st, on the other hand, is a small misdemeanor punishable by no more than 93 days in jail. A police officer may charge a driver with DWLS 1st at the scene of a traffic stop by simply issuing a ticket. A police officer, however, cannot write a ticket for DWLS 2nd. A person can only be charged with DWLS 2nd after the issuance of a warrant. The mechanics of producing a warrant are fairly labor intensive. Of the 1,744 offenders charged with DWLS 2nd a subsequent review of jail records disclosed that none of them had been sentenced to jail for more than 93 days unless they had committed another crime or crimes in conjunction with the DWLS offense. As such, we concluded that both our office and the respective police agencies were expending a tremendous amount of time and expense obtaining warrants for DWLS 2nd when, from an incarceration/punishment perspective, the same result could be achieved by simply writing a ticket for DWLS 1st. After this information was shared with local law enforcement, all area police agencies agreed, with certain exceptions, to simply write a ticket for DWLS 1st in lieu of requesting a warrant for DWLS 2nd. Based on 2009 statistics, we wrote 1,046 fewer warrants in 2009 as a result of this change.
The Bad Check Restitution Program’s primary goal is to obtain full restitution for the victim without adding to the financial burden of the criminal justice system and operates at no cost to the county or taxpayers. Benefits include merchants receiving restitution; law enforcement is relieved of the responsibility of having to investigate thousands of bad check complaints; offenders avoid criminal prosecution and are offered a course in money management in an effort to provide them the skills to avoid future difficulties; and an already busy court system is freed from the burden of additional cases and the costs related to such cases. Since its inception in late 2006 through December 2009, victims have received restitution totaling $597,965.
A thorough review was conducted of the various informational pamphlets that the Victim/Witness Unit provides to victims and witnesses. Major revisions were made to the pamphlets with an emphasis on presenting relevant information in a format that is easier for the victim and/or witness to understand and relate to. This includes victims’ rights, case flow information, and important contact information for other agencies.
Strategic Goals
- Continue to improve case processing; align staff and judicial and prosecutorial resources to focus on expediency
- Maximize effectiveness of existing staff and reduce staff growth.
Selected Goals
- Prosecute violations of State law in District and Circuit Courts within Kent County
- Protect and preserve the rights of victims by complying with the mandates in the Michigan Victims Rights
- Represent the people of the State of Michigan at hearings involving delinquency, neglect/dependency, and mental incompetency
2011 Adopted Uses: $5,941,065
2011 Adopted Revenues: $263,622
Selected Performance Measures
Performance Measure |
2008 Actual |
2009 Actual |
2010 Actual |
2011 Expected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of felony warrants authorized |
4,597 |
4,596 |
4,072 |
4,422 |
Number of misdemeanor warrants authorized |
5,204 |
4,598 |
4,097 |
4,633 |
Number of District Court trials |
126 |
122 |
121 |
123 |
Number of cases tried in Circuit Court |
99 |
118 |
86 |
101 |
Number of cases referred to victim/witness program |
9,097 |
9,042 |
8,316 |
8,818 |
Amount of restitution awarded to victims through
the Crime Victims Compensation Board |
$459,253 |
$439,815 |
$334,009 |
$411,026 |
Number of guilty pleas in Circuit Court |
3,311 |
3,445 |
3,151 |
3,302 |
Number of guilty verdicts in District Court trials |
99 |
95 |
89 |
94 |
| Number of guilty verdicts in Circuit Court trials | 90 |
95 |
76 |
87 |
Department History of Uses
| Uses |
2008 Actual |
2009 Actual |
2010 Adopted |
2011 Adopted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Personnel |
$5,716,952 |
$5,688,603 |
$5,745,050 |
$5,531,506 |
Commodities |
102,228 |
92,066 |
97,500 |
95,000 |
Contractual Services |
277,946 |
241,404 |
272,413 |
314,559 |
Capital Outlay |
5,579 |
22,499 |
- |
- |
Total |
$6,102,702 |
$6,044,572 |
$6,114,962 |
$5,941,065 |
Personnel FTE |
64 | 64 | 61.0 | 56.5 |
Significant Budget Issues
Eliminations for 2011 consisted of one full-time Social Worker I position in Victim/Witness Unit, one full-time Administrative Manager position in our Criminal/Juvenile Division, and two full-time Assistant Prosecuting Attorney positions in Criminal Division. Additionally, one full-time Clerk III position in our Criminal/Juvenile Division was reduced to a part-time position.
Significant Accomplishments
A thorough review was conducted of the various information pamphlets that our Victim/Witness Unit provides to victims and witnesses. As a result, major revisions were made to the pamphlets with an emphasis on presenting relevant information in a format that is easier for the victim and/or witness to understand and relate to. This includes victims’ rights, caseflow information, and important contact information for other agencies.
Since its inception, the Bad Check Program has provided restitution totaling $730,236 to victims in Kent County.
Writing tickets for DWLS 1st in lieu of DWLS 2nd warrants, with certain exceptions, while achieving the same result from a punishment perspective, resulted in 1,426 fewer warrants being written in 2010 for DWLS 2nd, and was a tremendous time saver for police agencies and the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office.
History of Uses (in millions)
