Shoshone prosecutor favors deals over trials

While Kootenai County had at least 60 criminal trials last year, its smaller neighbor to the east hasn’t had one since Shoshone County Prosecutor Michael Peacock took office nearly 15 months ago.

And it’s not going unnoticed.

Shoshone County Sheriff Chuck Reynalds said his deputies are “frustrated with the lack of trials and prosecution.” Osburn Police Chief Spike Angle said his office also has concerns.

Peacock said he’s aware that his practice of offering plea agreements has raised the ire of some people in the Silver Valley. But he said he believes the sentence in each case he’s negotiated is comparable to what would happen if the case went to trial.

Settling cases early is “an efficient way to do things,” saving cash-strapped Shoshone County money it doesn’t have, Peacock said.

Peacock, who says some criminal trials are likely this year, said he talks with victims and officers before he proposes a plea agreement. In major cases, he said, he talks directly with the sheriff.

“Some of these police officers that want to go to trial haven’t had the crap knocked out of them in court,” Peacock said.

Other prosecuting attorneys in Idaho say a majority of cases – 95 percent or more of all criminal cases – are resolved through plea agreements.

“If every case were to go to trial it would bring the criminal justice system to a grinding halt,” said Bill Douglas, the prosecutor in Kootenai County, where last year’s 60 to 70 criminal trials stemmed from 1,200 felony cases. “The cases that need to be tried, we try them.”

Former Shoshone County prosecutor John Cossel said he thinks all prosecutors “would rather resolve a case short of trial if they could.”

“After a while you know basically what a judge is going to do,” said Cossel, who now works for the county as a public defender. “If you can agree on a plea and sentencing, then why go to trial?”

The prosecutor’s critics point to a case involving a 28-year-old Pinehurst man who admitted burning his 6-year-old stepson with a cigarette.

The man also allegedly twisted the boy’s testicles and spanked him so hard that finger-shaped bruises were left on the boy’s legs and buttocks.

The man, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of the child, was originally charged with felony injury to child. Peacock agreed to suspend the charge and gave him one year of probation, with the condition he seek treatment and not break the law.

If the man meets the terms of probation, Peacock said, he may reduce the charge to a misdemeanor or dismiss the case entirely.

The prosecutor said the agreement was suggested by the man’s probation officer, who said his client was enrolled in a “52-week program for people with anger problems.”

“Who knows better what this defendant is doing and what he needs than his probation officer?” Peacock said.

If he fails the program, Peacock said, the man has a possible felony charge hanging over his head.

This week, an angry mother sent Peacock a letter criticizing him for a plea deal he struck with a now 18-year-old man charged with raping her 12-year-old daughter.

In exchange for a guilty plea to felony rape, the teen will receive a withheld judgment. If he completes four years of felony probation without reoffending, the case could be dismissed.

Peacock said he thinks the withheld judgment puts the defendant “in a major bind that’s a lot worse” than if he’d gone to trial for a crime that was committed as a juvenile. If the teen commits another crime in the next four years, Peacock said, he would face an adult felony charge.

The girl’s mother said she’s frustrated and upset. She said her daughter is no longer as outgoing as she used to be and cries in her sleep.

“It doesn’t go away for her,” the mother said. “For (the defendant) it can go away.”

Peacock also negotiated a plea deal with John Rollins Tuggle, a registered sex offender who kidnapped, raped and repeatedly stabbed his 12-year-old daughter last summer.

Tuggle, 37, was originally charged with attempted murder, lewd conduct, rape and kidnapping. In exchange for a guilty plea, Peacock agreed to drop the attempted murder and lewd conduct charges. He also agreed not to seek the death penalty.

Peacock notes that Tuggle’s daughter was spared from testifying at trial and the county was spared the expense of prosecuting the case. And Tuggle was sentenced to two life terms in prison with no chance for parole.

Peacock said he begins bargaining soon after an arrest is made – before defendants have a chance to “listen to jailhouse lawyers, family members and others” who tell them there’s a chance they won’t be convicted.

“Right after you’re arrested, you’re not feeling too frisky,” said Peacock, who has practiced law for 25 years and has a master’s degree in psychology. “You know you’re caught.”

In most cases, Peacock’s offers are accepted immediately. Trials are being set in other cases where deals weren’t struck – and in some cases weren’t offered.”Probably 90 percent of people you run into are not truly bad people. They’re kind of like the rest of us but made a bad mistake,” Peacock said. “When we run up against someone who has multiple offenses and a reputation for being dangerous, we have very little flexibility or tolerance for those people.”

Peacock said he invites anyone with concerns to call him or come to his office, and he’ll lay the case file on the table and tell them why a plea agreement was struck.

Others who are in the same position as Peacock said prosecutors have to work hard to educate people so they understand how the system works.

Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs said his office files between 7,000 and 8,000 felony cases each year.

With three courtrooms and three district judges, Loebs said, the county could only handle 150 felony trials each year – and that doesn’t take into account civil suits or misdemeanor cases.

“No prosecutor in the nation has the manpower to take every case to trial,” Loebs said. “No court system in the nation has the ability to try them all.”

Douglas, of Kootenai County, said the public has misconceptions about the plea bargaining process.

“Usually we’ll only enter a plea bargain when it’s a bargain for the people we represent – the citizens,” he said.