Case Resolution

This section presents data on all cases prosecuted by the District Attorney's (DA) Office that have reached a final resolution (a case disposition). Cases can be resolved in a variety of ways, including by dismissal, diversion, deferred judgment, guilty plea, or by acquittal or guilty verdict at trial. Successful diversion completions will be categorized as dismissals, we are working on a solution to be able to share specifics on diversion.

Why is this important? It is important to review how cases are resolved to ensure we are addressing serious crime effectively while minimizing unnecessary punitiveness.

Our goal is to efficiently resolve cases in a timely manner. Court suspension of jury trials at various times of the COVID pandemic have inhibited the ability resolve cases.

The largest block reflects plea agreements. Plea agreements are often in the best interest of community safety, as well as the rights of victims and defendants, in securing just and speedy resolutions, as well as the need to focus criminal justice system resources on cases which need to be tried. Our goal to expand our adult diversion program which began in 2021 should lead to more dismissals when the defendant has successfully completed a diversion program. Jury trials were suspended for significant portions of 2020 and 2021.

Indicators

Below are a set of indicators that provide additional context about case resolutions. These indicators help the DA's Office ensure they are achieving outcomes efficiently, effectively, and fairly.

We want to ensure accurate initial charging decisions based on the facts of the case; however, statutes bind us to charging felonies in some circumstances though justice will dictate when a misdemeanor plea is appropriate.

Our goal is that pleas would be offered to defendants of different races and ethnicities at similar rates. We have recognized this metric as an area to explore possible causes of the differences reflected above. Demographic data is collected by law enforcement.

Our goal is that pleas would be offered to defendants of different races and ethnicities at similar rates. Demographic data is collected by law enforcement.

Click Here for more information about race and ethnicity data collection and limitations.

Time to felony resolution has increased since 2017. Our goal is to decrease time to resolution. Please refer to our data story for more steps we plan to take.

The amount of time to felony dismissal has increased since 2017. Our goal is to decrease time on felony dismissals.

In general, we would like to decrease the number of hearings to avoid prolonged case processing. Continuances are ultimately the decision of the Court, not the DA. Please refer to our data story on Using Data to Inform our Work for more information.

Notes

Underlying data counts for each chart can be accessed through this link.
Each case is reflected by its top disposition. For example, if a charge on a case is dismissed as a part of plea negotiations and another charge on the case is plead guilty, the case will be reflected here as a “plead guilty.”
The charge level represents the most serious charge filed in a case.
Warrants are excluded (for all cases identified as a warrant).
Cases disposed with a disposition reason “deceased defendant” are excluded from case resolution related charts.
Hearings that occurred after case resolution (for e.g., if a defendant was on probation or returned to court for some reason after the case was disposed) are excluded from the average number of hearings per case.