Proctor starts Butler County PA office transition into new system

The Butler County Prosecuting Attorney’s office is in transition.

That transition includes a newly elected prosecutor, Kacey Proctor, who took over Jan. 1, and a move from paper files to a paperless case management system.

“It’s been challenging, but also it’s been fun to be able to really set up an office the way I think it should be run,” said Proctor.

Having previously served as a Ripley County assistant prosecutor, “I actually got the feel for what it was like to run an office, and to make the transition we’re going through now” to paperless, Proctor said.

Ripley County, he said, has a “significantly smaller caseload” than Butler County, so this “transition is going to be a little more time consuming.”

Becoming a paperless office, he said, “requires a great deal of attention and a lot of resources to make that happen so that has been a challenge.”

The move to paperless, he said, will increase the efficiency of the office, “which is absolutely necessary given” the county’s very large caseload.

Despite the challenges, being prosecutor is “my dream job; it’s absolutely, for sure, what I wanted to do ever since I went to law school,” said Proctor.

After graduating from the Saint Louis University School of Law in 2011, Proctor initially worked as an assistant prosecutor in Taney County for about 3 1/2 years.

While working in Taney County, Proctor was sent to a six-month Engineer Basic Officer Leaders Course through the Missouri National Guard.

“During that time, we had just had our oldest son prior to me going” to the course, Proctor said. “My wife came to the realization that being that far away from family was too hard on the family.

“ … my wife and I decided we were not going to stay in Taney County.”

The goal, he said, always was to move back home to Poplar Bluff.

“At that time, Chris Miller had an opening in the Ripley County Prosecutor’s Office,” Proctor said. “ … We were able to move back to Poplar Bluff, and I worked for Chris Miller … for about three years before I got deployed” overseas with the National Guard. He returned around the time of the November election.

Since taking office, Proctor said, everything is “going a little bit better than I hoped it would go.

“I think we’re further ahead in a lot of the transitions that are taking place than I thought.”

The office remodel, which had been a goal for Proctor, already is “full swing. I didn’t expect to be able to do that until a later time.”

“We’re starting on the bottom floor,” said Proctor, who indicated the office hadn’t been remodeled since 1993. “We’re repainting all the offices, the lobby and the conference room. We’re getting all new flooring throughout the office.”

As the elected prosecutor, everything is “my responsibility,” Proctor said. “What is a little more challenging is dealing with the administrative tasks … while still managing the caseload.”

Butler County, he said, doesn’t have a large enough staff for “me to just focus on running the office and not try cases.”

Proctor said he does try cases, files and review cases, as well as does search warrants, “all the things a prosecutor has to do” while juggling the administrative tasks.

While that is challenging, the “biggest challenge,” according to Proctor, is the “fact we have 13 homicides. We have so many high-profile cases that are set for trial, even this year, coming up.”

For the first month, Proctor said, it was just he and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Paul Oesterreicher handling the cases.

Derek Spencer, he said, recently was hired as a second full-time assistant prosecutor.

“For the first time, Butler County has three full-time prosecutors working in the office thanks to the county commission approving the budget,” said Proctor, who indicated he only added $200 to the overall budget by moving things around.

Having a third full-time prosecutor, Proctor said, was a goal for his first term in office, “and it happened right off the bat.”

Proctor said his goal of moving the office to all electronic discovery will take more time.

“Criminal procedure requires us to provide the defendant” and his/her attorney “any evidence that we intend to use against them and … any exculpatory evidence that we may have to prove the defendant’s innocence,” Proctor said. “We had an obligation to provide that.”

As it is now, Proctor said, that means physically making copies of all reports, photographs and audio recordings.

That process has to be repeated any time a new attorney enters the defendant’s case, Proctor said.

“It’s not necessarily uncommon for a defendant to go through two attorneys on a case, maybe three attorneys,” said Proctor.

One homicide case, he said, has “thousands of pages of paper discovery” and about 50 discs.

“That discovery file has been recreated four times” as “the defendant has gone through several attorneys,” he said.

“Electronic discovery is going to allow us to take all that evidence, store it on a server, and then literally point, click and send it to the defendant’s counsel,” Proctor said. “If a new defense counsel enters … we’ll just point, click and send it again.

“ … It will take just seconds to recreate” as compared to several days as a staff member makes all the copies.

The change, he said, is going to save time and resources — paper, ink, discs and flash drives.

“I think, ultimately, it will help move the caseload quicker because they are going to get discovery much quicker than in the past,” he said.

As Proctor looks to the future, he said, completing the transition to paperless and utilizing the system to “make our office run smoothly and efficiently” also are among Proctor’s goals for his first year.

“The other major goal obviously is trying these cases we have on our jury trial list and not delaying them,” Proctor said. “… We’re definitely going to be able to do that better now that we have three full-time prosecutors.”

Proctor also wants to better utilize the money generated by the Butler County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund.

People, who plead guilty to certain classes of crimes, can be ordered to pay up to $300 per case into the fund, Proctor said.

The fund, he said, is managed by a board comprised of representatives from the Butler County Sheriff’s Department, County Commission and Coroner’s Office and can be used by the sheriff’s department and prosecutor’s office.

“Ultimately, because of our caseload, I want to hire a fourth assistant prosecutor largely out of that fund,” said Proctor, who indicated those committing crimes should “help us to prosecute” them.

At the end of the day, “it’s rewarding and satisfying to get to serve the citizens of Butler County and do what I’ve always done since I got out of law school,” said Proctor, who is thankful for the opportunity to serve the citizens of Butler County.