Holes in court coverage after prosecutor layoffs in Wayne Co.

In a city that's already strapped for cash, Detroit is losing out on more money.  On Friday, Kym Worthy's office was forced to layoff several prosecutors.  Monday morning, she had nobody to send to 36th District Court for traffic or ordinance violations.

"This is uncharted waters for us.  We know that the City of Detroit needs money, and we're one of those vehicles that in some way helps derive money for the City of Detroit," said 36th District Court Chief Justice Kenneth King.  "Now those efforts are going to be hampered somewhat."

City attorneys handle about 70 percent of the traffic and ordinance violations, but the other 30 percent are handled by the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.  On Monday, no one from the prosecutor's office showed up for the traffic court docket.  Even worse, there was no coverage for the domestic violence docket.

"If you have a general public that does not feel safe, you have police officers that have been cut and working extra hours, and now you have a prosecution that's unable to man the courthouses, that's a recipe for disaster," King said.

For King, the people of Detroit and Wayne County alike are losing.  Justice is not being served.

"We're just here to administer justice and to make sure that it's done fairly, and that's kind of hard to do when I only have one side that's representing whomever," he said.

So what now?  There is a lot of finger pointing going on.  I spoke with a representative of the executive's office, and the prosecutor's office released a statement.  In short, Worthy says she needs more money.  Ficano believes she should do a better job of appropriating the money she already has been given.

King doesn't care who is to blame.  He just wants someone to fix the problem.

"I hope that someone somewhere resolves this soon because I have enough things going on without adding this to the plate," he said.