REGIONAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
A15
Deputy district attorneys in short supply in Northeastern Oregon
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — Coun-
ties across Eastern Oregon
have struggled over the past
few years to hire attorneys to
prosecute criminal charges,
and offi cials believe a vari-
ety of factors, including
uncompetitive salaries, have
contributed to the vacant
positions.
Wallowa County is bereft
of a deputy district attorney
for its already strained staff .
Morrow County and
Grant County each have
only a district attorney to
handle cases.
Umatilla County has just
fi ve prosecutors — includ-
ing the district attorney —
instead of the normal 10
attorneys.
Union County has fared
better, but even its offi ce is
down one deputy district
attorney.
Only Baker County has
a fully staff ed prosecution
team.
Every other county in
Northeastern Oregon has
positions open for deputy
attorneys. Those positions
have been hard to fi ll, and
in some cases have been
unfi lled for at least three
years.
Grant County District
Attorney Jim Carpenter has
had an open position since
2018 — except a brief period
when a prosecutor fresh out
of law school worked for a
short stint before leaving
to become a local public
defender. Carpenter remains
the county’s sole prosecutor.
“Following his depar-
ture, I had no confi dence
that I would be able to fi nd
a replacement,” Carpenter
wrote in an email, “espe-
cially knowing that areas
such as Deschutes and Mult-
nomah, which pay much
better than northeastern
counties can, had numerous
openings and I would not be
able to complete with them
for quality applicants.”
Carpenter had an agree-
ment with Grant County that
he would serve as county
counsel in return for funding
for a deputy district attor-
ney position; before then,
the role was funded through
a grant. Unable to locate a
suitable attorney to fi ll the
role as deputy, he resigned
from his position as coun-
selor in February 2020.
Likewise,
Wallowa
County District Attorney
Rebecca Frolander has had
an open position for three
years. She was the dep-
uty prosecutor there before
she was elected as district
attorney.
“From 2018 up until we
revamped the position in
the fall of 2018, I received
two applications,” Frolander
said, “but before I could
even get them interviewed
they took jobs across the
state.”
For a long while after
Frolander became district
attorney in 2012, grants
funded the deputy district
attorney position in Wallowa
County. But it sat vacant for
an extended period, and
that grant money had to be
returned and the position
remains open.
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
Union County Circuit Judge Thomas B. Powers presides over arraignments in the county
courthouse on Tuesday, July 20, 2021.
The paper chase
Data from the Oregon
State Bar during the past
decade show the number of
examinees per year steadily
dropping — approximately
12 less attorneys each year
pass the bar based on a sim-
ple linear regression model.
The exam has not become
more diffi cult over time, but
fewer tests are being taken.
In 2020 the pandemic
ushered in a “diploma priv-
ilege,” which allowed newly
graduated law students to
bypass the bar entirely and
receive their license — a
fi rst for Oregon. But even
then, only 343 attorneys
were minted in Oregon that
year. It was the lowest num-
ber of admissions since 1972
when 310 attorneys passed
the bar exam.
Also contributing to the
lawyer shortage is a higher
number of lawyers retiring
or leaving the fi eld. Accord-
ing to a 2017 economic sur-
vey released by the Ore-
gon State Bar, nearly 20%
of respondents said they
planned on retiring within
the next fi ve years — or by
2022. Additionally, the aver-
age age of practicing law-
yers was 47 according to the
survey.
But perhaps the biggest
reason why lawyers have
given the cold shoulder to
Eastern Oregon attorney
offi ces is that salaries in the
rural wild west don’t com-
pete with those in metropol-
itan areas.
According to the eco-
nomic survey from the Ore-
gon State Bar, the gap is
signifi cant. The 2017 sur-
vey showed an Oregon law-
yer could expect an aver-
age salary of $105,000
per year. However, East-
ern Oregon attorneys at the
time earned an average sal-
ary of $84,000, while Port-
land attorneys were paid
$125,000 on average — or
nearly 20% more than the
Oregon average and roughly
50% more than those work-
ing in Eastern Oregon. That
$41,000 a year diff erence
means student loans can be
paid off much faster.
And those averages,
which cover all attorneys,
still are higher than the
advertised salaries posted
for prosecutors in many
Eastern Oregon counties.
Union County, which has
one open position, off ers a
starting salary of just more
than $56,000 a year and
going up to $92,000 a year
based on experience. Mor-
row County, which does not
have a deputy district attor-
ney at the moment, adver-
tises $68,400 per year with
the ability to earn up to
an additional $30,000 per
year by doing county and
city work. Umatilla County
pays up to $77,000 for an
entry-level deputy district
attorney.
Wallowa County’s open
position advertises a yearly
salary of just over $52,000
for a newly minted law-
yer. Frolander said the sal-
ary for a prosecutor was
raised recently, but it has yet
to attract any prosecutors to
join the team in Wallowa
County. While the district
attorney’s offi ce waits for
applicants, the lack of qual-
ifi ed staff to prosecute cases
means cases sometimes
don’t receive the attention
they deserve.
“There are cases that I
have resolved for less than
I wanted to,” Frolander said,
“and there have been cases
I’ve declined to prosecute
due to resources.”
Frolander also said the
coronavirus pandemic has
created a traffi c jam of cases
that has yet to clear, further
impacting the offi ce’s ability
to prosecute crimes.
“Prosecutors should be
able to make decisions on
whether to pursue a crimi-
nal action based on the mer-
its of the case, rather than
on the resources available,”
Carpenter wrote. “However,
that is exactly the position
many prosecutors in North-
eastern Oregon are in at the
moment. The lack of avail-
able deputy prosecutors and
the lack of funding to attract
the qualifi ed applicants
leave us in the position of
making resource-based deci-
sions every day.”
Umatilla County Dis-
trict Attorney Dan Primus
said his offi ce was able to
increase the salary, but he
mused that money isn’t the
sole cause of hiring woes in
Eastern Oregon.
“I think that regionally,
it plays a role in what we’re
doing. I think it’s also less
desirable to be a prosecu-
tor,” Primus said.
Soldiering on
Morrow County District
Attorney Justin Nelson is
used to working on holidays
or late into the evening. His
phone and laptop are never
too far out of reach, just in
case the sheriff ’s offi ce or
the police need a search war-
rant reviewed or a suspect
charged.
However, he’s not used to
doing it alone.
“When it’s only two,
when you have one gone
you defi nitely feel it,” Nel-
son said.
The Morrow County Dis-
trict Attorney’s Offi ce held
on to a full staff through most
of the pandemic, unlike Nel-
son’s colleagues in Umatilla,
Wallowa and Grant coun-
ties. That meant the rolling
backlog of cases caused by
the court shutdowns in 2020
never had a chance to metas-
tasize into growing prob-
lems, like those felt in Wal-
lowa County.
“I’m now experiencing
what Mr. Primus has been
experiencing for quite a bit,”
Nelson said, referring to the
Umatilla County district
attorney. “That’s a unique
thing for me to experience
now. We really went through
the COVID-19 thing fully
staff ed, so I do think we
were in a better position
than any of the other coun-
ties, because while COVID
aff ected everybody, we
weren’t also dealing with a
staffi ng shortage at the same
time.”
But Nelson, like district
attorneys across Northeast-
ern Oregon, is used to the
challenges and the duty that
is asked of them. He noted
that despite working through
every holiday — especially
now with his offi ce short
staff ed — his troubles are
eclipsed by the offi cials and
public he serves.
“Anytime law enforce-
ment is working, I have to
be working, too,” Nelson
said. “If there’s a single offi -
cer out there that might need
to have a search warrant
reviewed, I need to be avail-
able. If it’s a weekend and
someone gets picked up on
a warrant, I need to be avail-
able. But I’m going home at
night. I’m with my family at
night. You know, there’s law
enforcement offi cers out on
the street, and they have it
harder than me. At the end
of the day, I’m a lucky guy.”
And while other coun-
ties have their own version
of a deputy district attorney
shortage, and some noted
the lack of attorneys may
make cases take longer and
require more attention, none
said the lack of lawyers will
aff ect their ability to prose-
cute crimes and defend vic-
tims’ rights.
“Our offi ce has worked
with a shortage of attorneys
before and likely will again,”
Union County District Attor-
ney Kelsie McDaniel said.
“We strive to make sure
that the citizens don’t see
any diff erence in the work
coming out of our offi ce on
behalf of Union County.”
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