District Attorney Martha Warner said a growing crime rate and shrinking budget are forcing her to offer plea bargains to offenders who should be punished more severely for their crimes.

“Right now I’m pleading cases for people who ought to be getting life sentences,” she told commissioners during the Monday, April 13, commissioners court meeting. “When I first started, I would take these cases to trial; now I’m having to offer plea bargains.”

Warner asked commissioners to allocate $30,000 to her office so she could hire another assistant prosecutor until the end of the budget year to help with the backlog of cases. The budget year ends on Sept. 30.

Warner already has one assistant prosecutor, Deborah Branch.

However, Branch is also a military officer who may be called up to serve her country at any moment, Warner said. If that happens, Warner said she will have a difficult time prosecuting the backlog of cases alone, not counting the 30-40 new indictments handled down each month.

Commissioners said they sympathized with Warner’s plight, but had no money in the budget at this time to fund the additional position.

“We just don’t have the money right now to bring on somebody,” said Bee County Judge David Silva.

Warner told commissioners her small staff and growing number of offenders is forcing her to strike deals with more defendants than ever before.

She said she is offering offenders more “open pleas” than ever before to keep cases from backing up. Typically offenders accept a plea bargain in exchange for a certain amount of time in jail. However, open plea bargains call for her to “cap” the plea at a certain number of years in prison and for the judge to determine the final sentence.

Warner said defendants accept open pleas because they’re hoping the judge will give them probation instead of jail time.

“So cases that used to get 75 years to life in prison are getting capped at 20 years and (defendants) are hoping to get probation, and in some cases they are getting probation,” she said.

Warner said she fears the county could be “overrun by gang members, violent offenders and pedophiles” because of the growth in crime coupled with a backlog of cases.

Silva said as county judge he also deals directly with crime victims.

And he said he understands the need for an additional prosecutor.

“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “It’s hard. But we’re up against deficits and (revenue) shortfalls.”

Warner said she would use her federal forfeiture funds to finance a second assistant prosecutor’s position until the end of the budget year.

However, she told commissioners she would return this summer and ask them to fully fund an assistant prosecutor for her office.