The Butler County Prosecutor’s Office learned this week it will receive nearly $105,000 in state grant funding to assist with the investigation and prosecution of crimes victimizing children.
Butler County Prosecutor Kacey Proctor said he was “ecstatic” when he learned of the grant award.
“This is going to give us the ability to hyper focus on those cases, and I think those are the most important type of cases our office handles,” Proctor said.
Crimes against children, Proctor said, “absolutely” are a major problem in the area.
“It’s a lot. I think it would shock the average person in the community as to how many reports of child molestation and child sodomy and cases like that, that we do,” he said.
The number of such cases in the last few years have ranged from 40 to more than 60 annually in Butler County alone, information from the prosecutor’s office shows.
“It’s not good,” Butler County Presiding Commissioner Vince added. “If you don’t prosecute them to the fullest, it does no good and they just turn them right back out.
“Kacey wants to put them where they belong.”
The announcement of the grant approval was made Wednesday by Gov. Mike Parson, who noted $1.8 million would be distributed between 19 applicants for the Missouri Crimes Against Children/Sex Crimes COVID-19 Funding Opportunity grant program, which is administered by the state’s Department of Public Safety.
Butler County’s share will be $104,900.
“I believe that’s a one-year deal, so that will give him a one-year shot in the arm,” said Lampe of the grant. “I’m glad we got it. We weren’t for sure we would.”
While the funding likely will be a one-time thing, Proctor said, “We’re certainly glad to have it and will put the money to good use.”
Proctor said his “first goal is to hire an assistant prosecutor whose only focus will be handling prosecution of crimes against children, including child abuse, child sex crimes, child pornography and things like that.
“We’re also going to hire an additional investigator to help. Along with those cases comes a lot of discovery issues and things that need to be tracked down. Those cases are very labor intensive.”
The grant also will fund new computers and file management software for the two new positions.
Importantly, Proctor said, the grant also will free up his current two assistant prosecutors for other cases.
“It’s going to free up the other prosecutors in the office to spend their time and energy on other cases,” Proctor said, “and give us the ability to catch up on a major backlog because the courts were shut down.”
In making the announcement of the grant funding, Parson said, “Criminals who victimize children must be investigated, prosecuted and brought to justice, no matter when they commit these heinous crimes.”
He also noted crimes against children have risen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The rise in crimes against children during the COVID-19 pandemic and the strains on agencies that detect, investigate and prosecute those criminals made it clear that local agencies could use additional assistance,” Parson said. “We are pleased to make these funds available to help protect our children and remove criminals from the streets.”