(Editors Note: The following article is based on a fourteen month investigation of the felony trials held in Levy County in the year 2003, the most recent full year for which records are available.) In mid-2003 a complaint circulated among local law enforcement officials that only one Levy County felony arrest had come to trial in the "past year." The validity of the complaint has been investigated, based on information provided by the State Attorney`s office in Gainesville and ultimately by the Florida Supreme Court Reporting System. Because the State Attorney must stand for election November 2, the Levy County record of bringing those charged with felonies to court is of current interest.
The current State Attorney, Bill Cervone, and his opponent in the November 2 election, Stan Griffis, have differed publicly on the effectiveness of the State Attorney. Cevones`s district, which includes Levy County, ranks nineteenth of the twenty Florida districts in conviction rate. The statistics for Levy County alone are the focus of this investigation.
In July of 2003 Cedar Key News requested the following statistics from the State Attorney`s office: 1) The number of felony arrests; 2) The number of felony trials; 3) The number of felony convictions in those trials. In January of 2004 the unfulfilled request was repeated, asking for the results of the year 2003. After requests by telephone, e-mail and in person, in October of 2004 a response came, saying that five jury trials occurred in 2003. However, upon comparison of the response with court records there was a major discrepancy. The dates on jury reports indicated that only one trial occurred in 2003 and four occurred in 2004, one of which may have started in late 2003. The spokesperson for the State Attorney told Cedar Key News that there were more than three jury trials in 2003, but that it would require a manual search ofthe records to find the correct number.
The Florida Supreme Court Reporting System records show that of 453 felony arrests processed by the State Attorney`s office in Levy County, three resulted injury trials, fifty-one cases were dismissed and 301 were plea bargained. The remaining cases were classified as "other." The State Attorney`s office provided a list of sixty-two reasons that court action does not go forward. The reasons for dismissal and "other" are varied. | 