Shawnee Mission Post
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The closure of courtrooms for the pandemic has left Johnson County with such a big backlog of cases that it will mean hiring four temporary employees in the district attorney’s office to work for the next two and a half years.
County commissioners last week unanimously approved the request for three prosecutors and one trial assistant to be added to the payroll to dig out from under the backlog, which has reached between 400 and 500 cases since in-person trials ceased March 18, 2020.
The new temporary staff’s salaries would be paid from federal grant money for coronavirus expenses.