District Attorney's offices statewide operate under funded, so one prosecutor is pulling money out of his own pocket. The most recent Legislative Audit Bureau analysis indicated that counties around Wisconsin need 120 more prosecutors. Sheboygan County operates with six full time prosecutors and one part timer, but the panel say they should have five more.
"We haven't had any major problems yet but the stress level is going through the ceiling here," says District Attorney Joe DeCecco.
DeCecco says in 2002 the county had 5,800 cases. In 2008 it was 6,600, being handled by the same number of lawyers.
Meanwhile, lawmakers and district attorneys received an automatic pay increase this year. DeCecco says he never asked for a raise just one additional prosecutor. He accuses the legislature of not caring about properly funding public safety.
DeCecco is splitting his $5,600 raise among his seven prosecutors.
