There are so many flaws in the way the Oklahoma County Court System works. The Oklahoma County Courts try so many misdemeanor cases that the District Attorney's office doesn't have the time to talk to the victims or witnessess until right before the trial date has been set. Even if a witness or victim to a crime goes to the Da's office that is prosecuting the case, they still can't talk with them until the trial date has been set. Where it is flawed at, is the fact that they will give options to a criminal to accept a lesser sentence before a trial has even been sent. So the criminal gets to walk free or only serve a couple months sentenced and still the victim/witness was never consulted.

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When it rains it pours... but when the blessings come they overflow!

A lot of these problems can be thrown at the feet of the state legislature. The Oklahoma County court system (and the rest of the state I guess) is horribly underfunded. About 95% of the District Court's budget comes from filing fees paid in civil cases, fines assessed in Civil Court, etc. The legislature has set it up to be funded by the people who use it.

Philosophically, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Personally, I'd like to see some vast changes down there. Especially on the civil side of things. Our courts should be set up to charge people for the court's time. In other words, we shouldn't charge the same amount for a civil case which is settled before the judge even gets involved as we charge for a civil case which involves millions of dollars at stake, a multi-day trial, where the judge has to do a significant amount of work researching the law and reading briefs. It would also make sense to allow the District Courts to appoint referees to be paid by the parties.

Any changes in the civil system will ultimately benefit the criminal side of things. As it's set up, the misdemeanor docket is probably more of a cash cow for the District Courts than anything else. It's not set up to give each case the maximum amount of consideration and "justice." The system is set up to efficiently handle as many cases it can in the shortest amount of time possible. This is the case because we have too few judges, not enough jail space, and ridiculously long dockets. It shouldn't surprise you that the D.A. couldn't be troubled to interview witnesses prior to the time he normally gets around to that. He's part of a well-oiled machine.

The question is this -- would you be willing to pay higher fines and/or taxes just so that we can afford to have enough judges, public defenders and prosecutors, not to mention a ton of new and additional infrastructure so that we could more thoughtfully handle these cases? Probably not. It's the misdemeanor docket, and in the grand scheme of things, it's about the least important thing in the entire court house in terms of where judicial and prosecutorial resources ought to be allocated.

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I don't know why, but I find it hard to believe that this is the way our court system works. I have never been involved in any court proceedings or been employed by a court, my first experience has really made me understand why alot of people don't have trust in the justice system. How can justice ever be served if a misdemeanor (especially a violent misdemeanor) , isn't important enough to speak with victims/witnesses of the crime. No wonder we have homocides, children kidnapped, rape cases, etc. I know we will always have those, but it makes me think, that just maybe the amount could be reduced if the criminal (who almost always has a previous criminal record) would have had to serve time previously or had court ordered anger management, AA, etc. It is just sad to think because the charges that were filed ,were deamed by the professionals to be a misdeameanor, that the criminal got a slap on a wrist by a fine, suspended sentence, deferred sentence, or a few months in the county jail. I'm sure the criminals committing the misdeamenors feel like they can get away with anything, including murder.

To answer your question, yes I would be willing to pay in higher taxes and fines if it meant that my community was safer.

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When it rains it pours... but when the blessings come they overflow!

I don't know if it makes you feel any better, but in Virginia, the prosecutors almost never speak to the witnesses in misdemeanor cases before the morning of the trial. They take a break from doing cases and go out into the hall and speak to them. They sometimes meet witnesses in felony cases ahead of time but not always. It is a rare situation (I can't think of any and I work in the courts) where the prosecutor talks to the witnesses before the charges have been brought.