Prosecutor Kym Worthy
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy says her office is in "crisis mode," the result of too many cases, too much crime and a shortage of prosecutors during the pandemic.
So, she's recruiting retired prosecutors and looking for others, Elisha Anderson of the Detroit Free Press reports.
“Our staff has been significantly reduced since 2020 during the time of the pandemic," Worthy said in a statement to the Free Press. "This has been an extremely stressful and difficult time for my entire staff. We are working to reduce the caseloads and get assistance to the staff. In keeping with that, we have expanded our search from Southeast Michigan to a nationwide search to recruit new staff members.”
As part of that search, Worthy sent an email to a retiree group asking them to consider returning to work. She noted that the office has lost almost a third of its staff, can’t fill many open positions and has a backlog of cases because of the pandemic, the Freep reports.
The email notes that Wayne County Circuit Court has more than 3,000 cases awaiting trial and 25 district and municipal courts in the county have more than 10,000 cases pending.
