By Paul Purpura
The New Orleans Times-Picayune
WEST BANK, La. — Television crime dramas such as “CSI,” in which flashy technicians solve cases using high-tech lasers, have given the public unrealistic views of how evidence is gathered and presented at trials, Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick Jr. said.
As a result, prosecutors are trained to seek out the “CSI” believers during jury selection and excuse them from serving on the panels during criminal trials, Connick said.
“ ‘CSI’ is killing us,” Jefferson Parish’s top prosecutor said. “People look at those shows and think there should be a forensic connection to every case.”
In a wide-ranging discussion about his office, from crime to staffing issues since Hurricane Katrina, Connick made the comments during a lunch meeting April 3 of the Harvey Canal Industrial Association.
While trying to debunk the dramatized fiction, Connick touted the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Crime Laboratory, which features a small DNA analysis lab and an array of firearms and crime-scene reconstruction technicians whose work regularly is presented to juries during criminal trials. The Sheriff’s Office is preparing to close on the purchase of West Bank land on which a new crime lab will be built, he said.
Still, Connick said, juries will see physical evidence.
“If DNA (evidence) is available, we’re going to use it,” Connick said.
Elected to his first term on Nov. 5, 1996, Connick faces re-election this year, the specter of which was not mentioned in his speech, much of which involved praise for his staff and the challenges that followed Hurricane Katrina.
He said that while Jefferson Parish saw a spike in 2006 with 66 homicides, the highest in recent memory, the overall numbers of cases his office is receiving has remained about the same as before the storm.
The nature of the cases, however, has changed, he said. Of the 7,945 cases presented to his office for screening by law enforcement agencies last year, about 3,300 were tied to illegal narcotics, he said. Drugs are often the root cause for other crimes, such as burglaries and carjackings, committed by users seeking drugs.
The homicide spike also is tied to the storm, coupled with an influx of people to Jefferson because other parishes and New Orleans were uninhabitable following the storm.
“A lot of this was drug-related turf wars,” Connick said. “They didn’t like their competition selling on the same street.”
Another post-Katrina prosecutorial problem, he said, is seen in witnesses, whether they are reluctant to testify out of fear or have been scattered by the storm, leaving prosecutors seeking the people who play key roles in their cases.
“If we don’t have a witness, we can’t prosecute the case,” Connick said.
In response, he said, his office has subscribed to an Internet-based legal service that allows prosecutors to search for witnesses by seeking anything from credit card applications people file to utilities. In some cases, prosecutors subpoena bank records, he said.
“If that’s what it takes, that’s what we’ll do,” Connick said.
The same applies to “dead-beat dads” who owe child support payments that prosecutors attempt to collect, he said. When he took office, the district attorney’s office collected about $10 million annually in child support. The amount peaked at $28 million in 2004, but dropped off dramatically the following year because of Katrina. He expects collections this year to top $28 million.
Like the witnesses needed for trials, Connick’s office also seeks out these debtors, he said.
“If they apply for a fishing license, we’re on them,” Connick said. “Apply for a hunting license, we’re on them.”
Copryight 2008 The New Orleans Times-Picayune