Pr. George’s sends thousands of cases to ‘rocket docket’

Published May 7, 2008 4:00am ET



The short-staffed Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office relies on a quick court with a “menu” of sentences to match minor crimes in order to juggle thousands of cases the office couldn’t otherwise handle.

According to state statistics, the county’s state’s attorney declined to prosecute 75 percent of the 21,404 cases that passed through district court between July 2006 and June 2007. But those statistics do not include the roughly 24,000 cases that were sent to retired Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Femia, who oversees the quick turnaround of the so-called “rocket docket,” according to court documents obtained by The Examiner.

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