San Jose Spotlight: Domestic violence cases overwhelm Silicon Valley prosecutors
Santa Clara County is experiencing a surge of domestic violence cases, spreading county prosecutors thin and holding up court hearings at a time when a looming budget deficit will cut District Attorney resources.
The DA’s office has pulled prosecutors from other teams to handle a 142% increase in family violence cases over the last five years, from 76 cases in 2019 to 184 in 2023. The challenges are colliding with a post-pandemic drop in courtroom capacity and a rise in survivors seeking help after being pent-up in households during lockdown. The consequence is a ballooning number of domestic violence survivors whose fates are jammed in a backlog of cases.
“If the district attorney’s office is saying they are having trouble taking cases, what does that mean for protection orders that survivors are seeking? What if the order expires before you have a court date?” Colsaria Henderson, executive director for Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence in San Jose, told San José Spotlight. “We would be on the precipice of something quite catastrophic for this county.”
This comes as District Attorney Jeff Rosen will have to reduce his office’s resources — further exacerbating workload issues — to meet a looming $250 million county budget shortfall.