Harlan Kirgan
Thousands of backlogged cases are about to be dismissed in St. Landry Parish because the time has run out to prosecute them, District Attorney Chad Pitre said at a Eunice Rotary Club meeting.
There were 6,500 to 6,800 felony cases backlogged and about thousand new cases when he took office, he said.
The backlogged cases include those with a “prescription,” meaning they must be brought to court within a certain amount of time or be dismissed, he said.
“We have thousands that are prescribed and we will be dismissing those summarily in the next few weeks,” he said.
Pitre praised his chief administrator, former district judge Ellis Daigle, for helping lead the office and clear the cases in his first 73 days in office.
“We are moving fast. We are handling cases. The morale is extremely high at our office and just to give you an example, as I was saying earlier, when law enforcement brings a file to our office it was taking the previous administration eight to nine months to review that file and to either dismiss it or formally charge that person,” he said.
“We are doing it in eight to nine days,” he said crediting Daigle and 10 prosecutors.
The prescribed cases do not include murder and sex offenses, he said. But they do include charges from armed robbery, burglary and thefts, he said
Pitre won election with 52% of the 39,138 votes cast in the Nov. 3 election to defeat incumbent Charles Cravins.
Cravins had been appointed district attorney by Earl Taylor, who retired in February 2020 after 23 years in office.
Pitre said there was no transition as he took office to lead about 70 employees. The payroll is about $780,000 a year.
Pitre noted the Parish Council cut the office budget by 40%, but has pledged to help his budget if needed.
Pitre said he is one of the few district attorneys in the state not to have an office in the courthouse. In the 1990s the district attorney’s offices were moved to the former federal building in Opelousas.
Pitre said being located in the building is a liability and cites electric bills of $6,000 to $7,000 a month.
Calling himself “conservative,” Pitre said he uses his personal vehicle and has done away with many office-owned vehicles.
Most of his speech to the Rotarians was to describe how the criminal justice system works.
Pitre said he has told his prosecutors to keep politics out of their jobs. “My policy is just do your job.”