A crime watchdog group says stunning mismanagement in the New Orleans District Attorney's Office is undermining public confidence in the prosecution of crimes.
Metro Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche says the most recently publicized cases of the D.A. missing key deadlines to prosecute cases are by no means the first.
"You got a management issue over there," he told WWL's Newell Normand. "There are internal problems in that office that need to be addressed."
Goyeneche says last year alone Williams missed more than 1,500 deadlines in criminal prosecutions.
He says one huge issues is the fact that nearly half of the employees in the D.A.'s office have quit.
"Fourty-five percent of his staff has been there a year or less. That is a staggering turnover rate."
Goyeneche says no business, public or private, can operate efficiently with those numbers.
Is the problem the pay?
He says it is not.
"It's not money that 45% of the staff is there a year or less. They just got hired. They knew what they were going to be paid. And the fact that they are leaving at that rate, indicates that there are internal problems."
The most recent case involves Williams missing a deadline to charge a 17-year-old as an adult for allegedly shooting a man during an Uptown carjacking after the suspect had escaped from the Bridge City juvenile lockup.
