FAYETTEVILLE -- Candidates for prosecuting attorney showed at a political forum Monday night that they differ significantly when it comes to experience, bail reform, prosecuting low-level marijuana crimes and charging juveniles as adults.
Matt Durrett, is the incumbent prosecutor seeking a third term, against Stephen Coger, a political newcomer who says the current system needs reforms. The 4th district comprises Madison and Washington counties.
Durrett, 49, said he has tried hundreds of criminal cases ranging from driving while intoxicated to capital murder in his 23-year career and has run an office of 50 employees and managed an annual budget of over $1.5 million for more than seven years. Durrett said he handles most murder cases personally.
"In this office, in this type of work, you can't just pass it off to other people. You can't just expect others to do the hard work," Durrett said. "You've got to get in there, you've got to roll up your sleeves, you've got to fight for the people of Washington and Madison Counties."
Durrett said he is running on his record which hasn't been perfect but, he's learned from mistakes he's made and they've made him a better prosecutor.
"That's what experience teaches you," Durrett said. "Experience builds partnerships. Over the course of 23 years I have cultivated partnerships that are going to help move this system and move it forward."
Coger, 37, is an attorney from Fayetteville. He's a former Fulbright Scholar who grew up in Danville and runs a law practice that specializes in helping women and child survivors of human trafficking and sexual abuse.
Coger said he's never tried a criminal case to a jury but, running the office is as much a matter of managing people, directing resources and having the imagination to come up with and implement needed changes as it is trying cases in court.
"My opponent has had eight years to do this criminal justice reform work," Coger said. "To vote for my opponent is to preserve the status quo. The leadership here should be demanding that drug court triple in size. should be demanding a mental health court, should have already proposed budgets for all of these things they allegedly support, should be demanding the reform of cash bail, should have started it eight years ago. None of that's happened, not a bit of it."
Coger said he has already developed proposals for reforms that will save the county at least $4 million dollars annually.
Coger said prosecutors have wide discretion in pursuing cases but that discretion must be used well.
"I'm going to use that discretion to drop marijuana charges and I'm gonna not use it so I prosecute the heck out of people that hurt cops or hurt anybody," Coger said. "It doesn't matter to me that an 18-year-old is smoking a joint; I'm not interested in that. We have to be selective about those charges that we bring and we have to focus our limited resources on addressing violent crime and crimes against property."
Coger said he would look for ways to get nonviolent, pretrial detainees out of the jail whenever possible. He also said he will stop charging juveniles as adults on day one.
"We will treat kids like kids, reform cash bail and address the root causes of crime and addiction," Coger said. "Too often I've seen violent people buy their way out of jail leaving my clients in fear. And, that's only part of the cost of cash bail, we spend $96 a day holding people in jail pre-trial and many of them pose no danger to anybody."
Coger said he'd treat addiction like the mental health issue it is by expanding drug court and mental health court and providing pre-trial services that provide treatment and address homelessness.
Durrett said he will continue to charge juveniles as adults when their crimes warrant it and a judge will allow it.
"Keep in mind these aren't people who are smoking marijuana, these aren't people who are shoplifting from Walmart," Durrett said. "These are people who are shooting and paralyzing people, these are people who are shooting up other peoples' homes, causing terror in our community. I'm going to continue to do that."
Durrett said when it comes to marijuana offenses, prosecutors don't get to pick and choose which laws they like to enforce and marijuana remains illegal, except for medical use. Durrett said typically low-level marijuana users are given options that include drug court or probation with treatment.
Durrett said he's worked with judges and jail officials on a monitor program to get more people out of the jail but his office has no input on bonds, which are set by a judge. Durrett said during the covid-19 pandemic a lot of people were released from jail on their own recognizance and what followed was an explosion in people failing to show up for court and further clogging the system.
"At the end of the day, you can't just let people out," Durrett said. "We've got to find a way that we can release people to make sure they're going to show up for court and not reoffend."
The candidate forum was sponsored by the Washington County League of Women Voters and the Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition.