SAFFORD — For the second time this fiscal year, the Graham County Court system has had to ask for extra help.
County Attorney L. Scott Bennett recently received unanimous approval from the Board of Supervisors to contract with local attorney Jeremy Waite for prosecutorial services for the next six months, due to the increase in the number of felony cases being prosecuted.
“Just to put the numbers into perspective, in this calendar year, at the end of November, we had filed 601 cases in Superior Court,” Bennett said. “That does not include probation violations or misdemeanors or anything like that.”
Bennett said the total also excludes cases that have been filed but haven’t made their way through the preliminary hearing process.
The contract with Waite is for a total of $25,000 and will be in effect through June 30.
Due to the increased number of cases being brought to Graham County Superior Court, in Late November, Court Administrator Josh Halversen received approval from the Board of Supervisors to pay an additional $38,920 for an increased caseload by Raymond Geiser, one of the private attorneys contracted with the county for Public Defender services.
Bennett also received approval from the Board of Supervisors to accept a grant for almost $120,000 from Arizona Department of Public Safety.
The money is to help reimburse counties with the investigation and prosecution of cases involving fentanyl. Bennett said the money will be used to offset some of the salary for attorneys prosecuting drug-related crimes.
