Around the stateA look at how other cities handle their legal load.
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By COREY TAULE
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ctaule@postregister.com
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To really understand how former Idaho Falls City Prosecutor Kimball Mason fleeced the city, one must tour the state. Mason alone handled Idaho Falls' criminal misdemeanor cases. Bonneville County Prosecutor Dane Watkins Jr. said there were roughly 6,000 of those in the county last year. Two-thirds, he estimates, were in the city. City Attorney Dale Storer and his law firm have the city's civil contract. In total, Idaho Falls spends less than $345,000 on its legal team. Pocatello, by contrast, spends more than $632,000 to pay for five full-time lawyers and three support staff. Boise spends $3.3 million on 28 lawyers and 18 support staff to handle criminal and civil cases. Coeur d'Alene spends just more than $1 million on six lawyers and seven support staff. Nampa pays $939,000 for separate law firms to handle that city's legal work. So, it took several people in other cities and a lot more money to handle what Mason alone did here. "We were amazed at how much he could put out," said Ida Hardcastle, Idaho Falls City Council president. But Mason had a reputation for settling cases out of court and never asked for help. Idaho Falls Police Chief J. Kent Livsey said officers were frustrated at their cases being routinely dismissed. "Nobody really knew what his caseload was," he said. "Nobody tracked it." With Mason in prison, the county is handling his old workload. Watkins has eight full-time lawyers sharing a caseload that Mason handled alone.
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