Clay County Attorney Brian Melton presents his department’s annual report to the Clay County Commission.

Karen Newman 

County Attorney Brian Melton reports that Clay County shows a decrease in crime during 2020 which he attributes to the Covid-19 pandemic.  In 2020, 1939 cases were opened by his office as compared to 2510 cases in 2019.  In most years, the number of murder cases in the county are 0-1, as compared to 2020 when there were five. Because county buildings were closed due to the pandemic, only three jury trials were held in the past year, creating a significant backlog to be dealt with in 2021. In a normal year, statistics show that the annual number of jury trials held in Clay County is 20-25.  Melton’s office continues their ongoing project to convert their paper files to a digital format.

The county attorney’s office works with three specialty courts:

·       Drug Court

·       Veteran’s Court

·       Domestic Violence Court

Melton reports that these three treatment and accountability courts help to ensure that individuals who have addiction and/or mental health problems have the opportunity to heal and get their lives back on track without going to prison.  The Domestic Violence Court provides an increased level of supervision to ensure that offenders are complying with court orders.  Melton added that his department hopes to add a mental health court to the specialty courts currently in his department.

Commission Chair Kevin Campbell responded, “I am anxious to hear more about the mental health court.  When we look at the statistics from the drug court and the improvements it’s made on lives, I am anxious to hear about how this (proposed) court can be another tool in helping those folks who may end up incarcerated as a result of mental health issues when there are better ways to do that.  I know you are in the planning stages of it.  The entire board will be anxious to know how we can help in establishing that.”

Speaking in his role as Clay County Attorney and as a member of the Clay County CARES Committee. Melton expressed his appreciation to the board for their past year’s labor in carefully overseeing the distribution of CARES Act dollars across the county to help businesses and citizens, especially the underserved segments of the population. He declared, “I think those dollars will go a long way for a long time.”

Commissioner Campbell concluded, “You talked a little about the civil side of your office.  I don’t know how much the public is aware of how many times our county board has to have your office review contracts and that type of thin.  There’s a tremendous amount of review in terms of contracts and that type of thing. We are fortunate that we have a department that works so closely.  Often times we come across things that have to be acted on fairly quickly.  Your office is right there to review them. That is very much appreciated on our part.”