This article was created for Propublica’s local reporting network in collaboration with Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatch to get stories in your inbox every week.
Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said this week that the city is hiring a full list of prosecutors and has not stopped filing criminal charges due to the short staffing. The announcement comes nine months after Anchorage Daily News and Propublica reported major terminations.
“Public safety starts with accountability, and without a courtroom prosecutor, we can’t hold people accountable,” LaFrance said in a news release, announcing that Alaska’s biggest city has fulfilled the work of “frontline” prosecutors for the first time since 2020.
A newsroom investigation released in October found that city prosecutors dropped hundreds of misdemeanor cases because they didn’t have enough lawyers for their pay. Between May 1 and October 2 last year, the city dropped more than 250 domestic violence and assault cases and more than 270 drunk driving cases as it failed to meet the 120-day deadline to maintain its right to a quick trial of the defendant.
A few days after the investigation was released, Alaska announced it would help prosecute city cases to avoid expedited court firing.
But prosecutors in these states are no longer needed. According to the city, the city’s prosecutor’s office now has a full staff of 12 “frontline” prosecutors to be tried, as well as supervisors and lawyers who will file moves and appeals. They said the only vacancies are the role of supervisors: Deputy Local Government Prosecutors.
The vacancy rate at the prosecutor’s office is about 7%. In contrast, more than 40% of city prosecutor positions were vacant as of mid-2024, according to a city spokesperson.
At Wednesday’s “Tri Alcohol” hearing at Bonnie Court House in Downtown Anchorage, municipal prosecutor Andy Garbe announced he was ready to file a lawsuit after the case, including a drunken driving arrest, a weapons charge, and a domestic violence attack. That was a very different scene from September when prosecutors were routinely forced to file charges when they were approaching a quick deadline.
“We’re not in the position we were in last fall,” Garbe said, referring to forced termination. “It’s not happening anymore.”
City prosecutors said they are still dismissing the case for reasons other than a quick trial deadline. On Wednesday, for example, Garbe moved to dismiss two lawsuits involving domestic violence assault. He cited factors such as weakness in the lawsuit and unavailable witnesses. The defense attorney warned that the lawsuit was approaching a 120-day quick trial deadline, but Garbe said timing was not the reason for the termination.
After mass layoffs at Anchorage, Alaskan officials intervene to help prosecute crimes
In Anchorage, city prosecutors handle misdemeanor cases, while state lawyers generally prosecute felony.
The most serious felony has caused the state to deal with the issue for a long time, with the exception of Anchorage’s mass layoffs. The newsroom reported in January that some of these cases were 10 years behind when they reached trial. In March, the Alaska Supreme Court issued a series of orders aimed at reducing delays.
District Judge Brian Clark sued the Supreme Court order on Wednesday when he asked his lawyer if he was ready to go to trial.
