Lyon County’s crime stats last year fell within the now 10-year statistical range.
On KVOE’s Talk of Emporia last week, County Attorney Marc Goodman said there were 571 cases charged last year, or well within the range of 525 to 635 cases since 2009 and almost identical to the 575 filed in 2018. Most of the cases come from one category.
Goodman says possession or distribution cases, regardless of the drug, can lead to other criminal activity including burglary, robbery or assault and battery. He is sharply critical of efforts to expand legal marijuana use for medicinal purposes and says lawmakers or local city and county leaders have to determine how to regulate it in public places if the effort gains more traction.
Goodman also criticized lawmakers for recent changes to juvenile laws. He says those changes, which were designed to keep troubled youths at home rather than detention, essentially took most punishment options away from prosecutors and judges.
Goodman also clarified sentencing concerns that have arisen in the public the last several years. The state has used a sentencing grid for decades that directs judges on sentences, and to a degree that also directs how prosecutors like Goodman approach cases as they approach trial. He says things have now developed so that unless suspects have committed a list of so-called person felonies or have a lengthy criminal history, they don’t go to prison.
