LIHU‘E — A former victim witness counselor at the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, terminated 78 days after being hired, has accused her leadership of mismanagement and causing a large case backlog. County Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho called the allegations a
LIHU‘E — A former victim witness counselor at the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, terminated 78 days after being hired, has accused her leadership of mismanagement and causing a large case backlog.
County Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho called the allegations a thinly veiled attack fueled by a jilted former employee.
Almost a year ago, on Jan. 19, Iseri-Carvalho sent to the Kaua‘i County Council a letter in which she blames the county furloughs (from July 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2010) for OPA’s inability to accomplish its duties in a number of cases — there was insufficient staff to prepare those cases in a timely manner.
“I beg to differ,” said in a written testimony counselor Erin Wilson, hired by OPA in August and terminated Nov. 23. “I would suggest instead it is the constant revolving door of employees that has caused a tremendous backlog of cases at OPA.”
Iseri-Carvalho said Wilson’s assumption and conclusions are baseless and misguided.
“I find it quite telling that the majority of her testimony to the council relates to issues that occurred long before she was employed by the OPA, or even stepped foot onto our island,” she said.
Wilson sent her testimony to be disclosed Wednesday at the weekly council meeting, when Iseri-Carvalho was to give the council an update on OPA’s Victim Witness Program. But the agenda item was deferred to Jan. 19 because Iseri-Carvalho was unable to attend due to illness.
Wilson said in the testimony that her counselor position was eliminated due to lack of work, which she says is a “stark contrast to the much needed victim witness counselor that the elected prosecutor requested monies for in her letter … (to council) June 13.”
Iseri-Carvalho said the decision to eliminate Wilson’s position was a result of a careful review of the counselor’s workload, job description and OPA’s duty of maintaining efficiency and fiscal responsibility.
“She revealed to me and our grant coordinator that she was only working 60 percent of the time she was at the office during a normal work day,” Iseri-Carvalho said of Wilson.
Upon learning this information, Iseri-Carvalho said she requested an audit of the Victim Witness Counselor program in an attempt to properly distribute case assignments among the four counselors, so that each one had sufficient caseload to support full-time employment.
“After reviewing the amount and type of cases assigned to each victim witness counselor, it became clear that we would be unable to distribute the caseload in such a way as to justify the continued existence of Ms. Wilson’s position,” she said.
Wilson, however, said in her testimony she is “certain that the victims who call OPA on a daily basis requesting an update on their case status or the victims of the most recent surge of crime on Kaua‘i” could have used the services she provided as a counselor.
Wilson also lashed at OPA judgment calls in distributing assignments.
The process in which OPA would receive investigations and assign deputy prosecutors and counselors was ambiguous, according to Wilson, who said the time frame in which the assignments would take place varied week to week.
“Sometimes cases would be reviewed by the prosecutor and assigned to a deputy attorney and victim witness counselor right away,” Wilson said. “ Other times, as I found out with my caseload, would take months upon months before even being assigned to a deputy or counselor for any action to be taken.”
In one of the cases, it took OPA 17 months to contact the family of a victim who died as a result of a crime, according to Wilson.
She also blamed the elimination of the position of Diana Gausepohl-White as the director of the Victim Witness Program. This action resulted in a lack of leadership within the program and a drastic change in the scope of services the counselors were allowed to offer, Wilson said.
High turnover
Wilson said 17 prosecutors had been hired and left on their own or were let go since Iseri-Carvalho took office.
Iseri-Carvalho said the accurate number is actually 15. Three of them were transferred to other government agencies, five were asked to resign due to poor performance, two were terminated for dishonesty, four resigned due to off-island relocation and one resigned after giving birth.
“Nationwide, turnover in prosecuting attorney’s offices is not unusual,” she said. “Hawai‘i is no exception. It should be noted that the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has had approximately 40 attorneys leave the office since 2010.”
Prosecuting attorney’s offices are often utilized as a stepping stone into the legal profession, said Iseri-Carvalho, adding that many new attorneys fresh out of law school view taking a job at a prosecuting attorney’s office as a temporary step in their legal career, which gives them substantial exposure to the local courts in a relatively short period of time. These new attorneys often leave the Prosecutor’s office when another more appealing job opportunity becomes available
“The nature of the workload also contributes to high turnover rates in prosecuting attorneys’ offices,” she said. “Deputy prosecuting attorneys deal with violent and heinous criminal cases that can be psychologically and emotionally difficult for some attorneys to handle.”
The disturbing nature of the cases and the high workload volume leads many attorneys to decide that the job is simply not for them, Iseri-Carvalho said.
“This effect is amplified during times like the current economic crisis, when the severity and frequency of crime is at an all-time high,” she said.
Counseling
Iseri-Carvalho said the victim witness counselors are not the only employees that provide victim services.
“Our attorneys take a proactive approach in having personal contact with their witnesses, and keeping the victims of crime apprised of the status of their cases,” she said. “We’ve found that many victims prefer to have direct contact with the attorney assigned to their case, instead of having a victim witness counselor act as an intermediary.”
This direct contact is an important part of OPA’s model of prosecution, as it builds a stronger rapport with victims, which leads to more successful dispositions and higher victim satisfaction, according to Iseri-Carvalho.
OPA has, for over a decade, contracted with outside agencies, such as the YWCA, which provides specialized services for victims of crime, she said.
Those services include crisis counseling, emergency shelter, and sexual assault and domestic violence advocacy.
“We find that these types of agencies are often better equipped to respond to victims’ immediate needs, as they, unlike our victim witness counselors, operate 24/7,” Iseri-Carvalho said.
First Deputy Prosecutor Jake DelaPlane said Iseri-Carvalho will testify at the Council Chmbers Thursday at 1:30 p.m., despite being originally asked to come back Jan. 25, when she has a scheduling conflict.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@ thegardenisland.com.
