FARMINGTON — The district attorney for Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties has announced the first-ever “blitz” to begin clearing a backlog of 2,700 criminal cases in the three counties.
District Attorney Neil McLean Jr. told Franklin County commissioners this week of the plan to resolve 1,400 to 1,500 of the cases starting May 15 to 26.
Since most of them are from Androscoggin County, they will be handled in 8th District Court in Lewiston. The other courts in Franklin and Oxford will send court clerks to Androscoggin County, he said.
Franklin County has 500 to 600 unresolved cases.
The plan is to make atypical offers to defendants, including possible dismissals, making donations to a charity and a conviction that will go on a person’s record but have no penalty. There will be some felony cases but mostly misdemeanor crimes resolved.
One reason for the “blitz,” McLean said, is because the 2,700 cases are bogging down the judicial system. The situation doesn’t provide time to get to the more important cases such as gross sexual assaults and aggravated assaults. The District Attorney’s Office doesn’t have the time needed to take all cases to trial, so some people are sitting in jail waiting for their cases to be resolved, he said.
There is also case law coming from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court that is threatening to hold prosecutors’ “feet to the fire” to alleviate the backlog of cases, although the court understands there is nothing prosecutors can do about this, he said.
However, the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides a criminal defendant the right to a speedy trial, will trump public safety, McLean said.
He said all attorneys in the DA’s Office have been informed and his office is working with defense attorneys on offers to their clients.
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