In fiscal year 2024, 1279 criminal cases were reviewed and disposed of in some manner by the Attorneys in the Rockingham County Attorney’s Office. 4509 criminal charges were filed in the Rockingham County Superior Court by our prosecutors (1250 cases). 403 jury trials were scheduled for trial by the Superior Court in fiscal year 2024.
In addition, 109 probation violations were prosecuted by this office. The average caseload for each felony prosecutor was at least 155 cases. To give the caseload number some context, the Attorney General’s Office opines that assistant county attorneys should ideally have a caseload of 75 cases.
The staff in our office is broken into 5 teams. Each team (apart from our ECR team) consists of 1 lead attorney, approximately 3 assistant county attorneys and 2 legal assistants. The 5 teams represent 4 different geographic areas as well as our Early Case Resolution team. The Deputy County Attorney directly oversees all Assistant County Attorneys, as well as their own caseload, as does the County Attorney. This system allows the RCAO staff to create good, solid working relationships with the police departments in their respective area.
Prosecutors are available to answer questions and to go to a crime scene to assist in investigations and charging decisions 24 hours a day. All prosecutors are periodically scheduled to be “on-call” at night and on weekends. Prosecutors are “exempt” employees who do not receive overtime or other consideration for this added duty. The prosecutors recognize that this is an important function that results in better investigations, better prosecutions and protection of the rights of citizens of the County. Assistant County Attorneys answered 338 Duty calls from police departments in fiscal year 2024.