KMOX Studios, St. Louis, MO -It's been nearly two years since Gabe Gore was brought in to right the ship in the St. Louis Prosecutor's Office. He was originally appointed to the post. This past November, he won election to a four-year term.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore joined KMOX's Megan Lynch in studio to talk about progress and continued challenges.
Lynch: Two years later what is the biggest issue that still faces your office?
Gore: I would say the biggest issue that still faces us is still getting up to full staff. We've made a lot of progress in that area. When I was appointed, we were at 22 trial attorneys. As of today, we are at 48 trial attorneys. We also have five law school graduates scheduled to join us in the fall, which will be a nice boost to our numbers, but our budgeted number for our office is 60 attorneys, and that's pretty lean. So even if, even when we're at 60, that's a pretty lean staffing, so that's still the biggest issue is having enough attorneys to do the work and not experiencing too much burnout with the attorneys who are there, who are carrying extra caseloads right now.
Lynch: What is the caseload for each of your prosecutors?
Gore: It differs per unit. In general felonies, we have attorneys who are carrying 200 cases, which is above ideal. In our violent crime unit, you'd like to see them carrying around 40 cases. That's probably our most overworked unit at this point. Attorneys in that unit are carrying 80 cases or so, so maybe double what would be ideal. And the same thing in homicide. So it differs from unit to unit, but all of our attorneys are, as I tell people, working at about 130 percent of capacity at this point. So getting those numbers down and getting more trial attorneys in and getting young attorneys trained is really our big focus right now.
Lynch: What's the challenge of attracting and retaining attorneys?
Gore: I have really been very fortunate and humbled by the response we've received in terms of attorneys willing to come back to the office and serve. There's a real sense of service in St. Louis, as you know. So we've done well on that front in terms of attracting and retaining attorneys. But the big challenge is caseloads, not burning out the attorneys who are on staff and remaining competitive in salary is a big one because the competition for prosecutors is pretty fierce. The competition for legal professionals is pretty fierce. We compete with neighboring prosecuting attorney's offices as well as the private sector where people can make a lot more money.
Lynch: When you came in, you were facing a pretty significant backlog of cases, and that has dwindled to some extent. Talk about the challenge of trying some of those older cases.
Gore: Well, there's a saying in the legal profession, which is 'no case gets better with time.' You have issues of memories fading, witnesses. You know, we've had cases, witnesses die. So it just makes it more difficult to try old cases. We had a lot of cases that maybe weren't investigated as well as my current attorneys would have investigated it had they had the file. And so it does present very unique challenges. And we just have to do the best we can in a number of cases. Cases have aged and gotten old, and we have no choice but to dismiss them because the evidence, even if it was there at one time, no longer exists in terms of witnesses dying or other issues with the case.
Lynch: How long does it take for an office, when you start picking up the pace on this backlog of cases, for it to become a deterrent effect in the community?
Gore: That is a question that I don't have the answer to. We need a criminologist to give us the answer that. But I will tell you this. When we came on, there were 6,700 applications for warrants in the warrant office that had not been reviewed. And in those 6,700 applications for warrants, there were hundreds and hundreds of very serious violent felonies, sexual assault crimes, and there were even nine homicides that had not been reviewed. Our focus during that first three or four months was to get in and really aggressively get through those cases, issue those cases. And that I do know had a big impact on public safety simply because those cases represented crimes that were being committed by that very small group of individuals that we know drive violent crime in St. Louis. It's a very small percentage of people who commit the majority of the violent crime in the city of St. Louis and the St. Louis region. And by those perpetrators remaining on the streets and not being prosecuted, that was a real threat to public safety. So I do know that that work we did on the backlog in the warrant office has had an impact, a favorable impact on public safety.
Lynch: I have to tell you something that I noticed, and I think in this region, we've all kind of been framing your time in office this way. As I did background for this interview today, very nearly every story referenced, obviously, Kim Gardner because you were appointed after she resigned. Are you tired of that narrative? Are you ready for people just to talk about Gabe Gore?
Gore: You know, I understand that, but I've never really focused on that. Whenever people have asked me questions about Kim Gardner or what, you know, I've told them that I'm forward-looking. I'm focused on building the office that we all want. We're pursuing a vision of being one of the best prosecuting attorney's offices in the country. That's our focus. That's our goal. And so we work towards that. We don't really look back. So it doesn't really bother me if people choose to do that, but me and the trial attorneys at our office, we're not looking back. We're looking forward.
Lynch: I know you were not in support of the St. Louis City Police Department falling under state control. When that panel is put in place, what would you tell them about what St. Louis needs, from your perspective?
Gore: Yeah, I was not in favor of state control. I just believed that having local control is more consistent with democratic principles. And also, just in talking with Chief Tracy, I know that he felt like the model of local control was working well for him, giving him the ability to do the work that he needs to do. And so I was supportive of his desire to continue down the path he was on. But state control is now the law. It's going to happen. And, you know, I just I just really hope that the appointed board continues to work closely with Chief Tracy and really support him and what he's doing, because I do believe the approach he's taking is having a very favorable impact. If you look at crime statistics this year, they're down across the board.
So I think that that work is really paying off. And I'd like to see us continue down that path.
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