Panel OKs limits on appointing special prosecutor

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Appointing a special prosecutor will probably get tougher for district attorneys throughout the state.

The state’s Joint Finance Committee voted 12-4, along party lines, on Tuesday to modify the governor’s proposal to change how a special prosecutor can be appointed. The change approved Tuesday would require the state to pay private attorneys who have been appointed as special prosecutors to be paid within 120 days. Otherwise, interest will accrue.

For the proposal to become law, it still must be passed by the full Legislature and signed by Walker.

The Joint Finance Committee also approved Walker’s proposal that would allow special prosecutors to be appointed only if district attorneys are mentally or medically incapable of performing their duties.  A judge or district attorney requesting such an appointment would have to submit an affidavit to the Department of Justice detailing which of those requirements has been met, and the state Department of Justice would have to approve the appointment of a special prosecutor before the court could set the compensation for the prosecutor.

Current law allows special prosecutors to be appointed  for various reasons, including the following:

• a DA cannot physically perform his or her duties;
• has a mental incapacity that prevents those duties from being performed;
• there is no DA for a county, or the DA is absent from the county;
• the DA is serving in the U.S. Armed Forces;
• the DA decides that there is a conflict of interest related to the DA or the DA’s staff;
• the DA is related to the accused party; and
• the DA is charged with a crime

“We shouldn’t be futzing with this program,” said state Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Milwaukee. “They are just using the special prosecutor to help fill long-term gaps.”