Hoovler: Accomplishments in 2014
GOSHEN – Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler is into
his second year as the county’s prosecutor and he said Tuesday that
his office has made great strides in accomplishing the goals he set for
his first year in office.
Hoovler’s efforts of taking back the cities from violent crimes
and drugs, combating fraud and improving communication between the DA’s
office and law enforcement and other elected officials have proven successful,
he noted.
“In 2014 conviction rates were up, but a prosecutor’s effectiveness
cannot be measured merely by how many offenders go to prison, or for how
long,” he said. “Some non-violent offenders benefit from drug
treatment and probation supervision more than from incarceration.”
To that end, Hoovler’s staff has worked on plea offers for non-violent
offenders, who are not drug dealers that encourage offenders with addiction
to receive the treatment they need.” In fact, over 20 percent of
drug offenders, who were not dealers, were recommended for treatment through
court-ordered diversion programs, or were recommended to drug court or
probation.
Targeting the drug trade has been successful in 2014 where working with
local police, the DA’s office prosecuted 128 defendants for selling
drugs, compared with 55 the year before. A total of 21 guns were recovered,
“showing a clear nexus between guns, violence, and the drug trade.”
The value of the drugs seized in those operations totaled some $4.1 million.
In 2014, a total of 114 welfare fraud cases were investigated in the county
with 48 handled as civil matters and 67 being prosecuted criminally. The
fraud represented $748,000 and it is estimated that the costs that were
avoided last year by those investigations amounted to some $4.3 million.
Other accomplishments in Hoovler’s office including prosecuting
26 cases of labor law violations; creating a community affairs bureau
with over 160 appearances at town board meetings, schools and community
events; a school truancy program and restructuring the office’s
DWI policy.
