The number of felony and serious misdemeanor cases Summit County prosecuted in 2008 declined from the year before, Summit County Attorney David Brickey said about crime numbers released Wednesday.
There were 357 criminal cases prosecuted in 3rd District Court in Summit County last year, Brickey said.
In 2006, there were 372, and 380 felony and misdemeanor cases were prosecuted in 3rd District Court in 2007, the report states.
But the number of criminal cases involving juvenile defendants increased slightly in 2008, Brickey said.
There were 615 juvenile-court cases filed in Summit County in 2008. In 2006, there were 663, and 612 cases involving juvenile suspects were filed in 2007.
Meanwhile, the number of less-serious misdemeanor citations jumped last year from the year before in Summit County. Officers issued 7,543 tickets in 2008, Brickey said, adding that those numbers are for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and do not include citations issued by the Park City Police Department and other agencies.
In 2006, there were 6,252 misdemeanor citations, and there were 6,851 issued in Summit County in 2007, the report states.
“The most telling, certainly, is the increasing number of misdemeanor citations that the County Attorney’s Office and its staff, including the court staff, is having to prosecute,” Brickey said. “We’re at over 10,000 citations in a small little justice court, and there is a steady increase in the number of cases the Justice Court is seeing.”
Charges were filed in about 86 percent of the cases the County Attorney’s Office investigated last year, Brickey said.
“The County Attorney’s Office is pretty consistent at staying above 85 percent,” Brickey explained.
He praised County Attorney’s Office assistants Lonni Dawson and Krista Hortin for “managing the entire court load for six lawyers.”
Finally, “general” civil cases in 3rd District Court in Summit County numbered 955, an increase of about 400 cases over each of the prior two years. Additionally, judgments, probates, property-rights cases and torts numbered 2,805 in 2008, up significantly from the year before.