According to the Missoula County Attorney’s Office, weekly crime numbers have remained in the double digits for quite some time. Chief Deputy County Attorney Jason Marks says this week was no different.

“I would say we had a relatively busy week,” Marks said. “We filed 16 new cases this week and there was a mix of things. There were a handful of drug possession cases, a couple domestic violence cases, a robbery and a couple thefts. Probably most significantly, we filed two sexual intercourse without consent cases.”

In addition to all of that, the Missoula County Attorney’s Office still has to find time to work on other big cases. People often wonder why it takes so long for an individual to be brought to trial when a major crime is involved. Marks says it can take a long time because there is usually a significant amount of material to go through.

“For example, we were supposed to have an omnibus hearing at the end of May for the Johnathan Bertsch case, but that was moved to the beginning of August just because of the sheer volume of discovery in that case,” Marks said. “I think we have something like two terabytes worth of evidence. There is a lot to go through there.”

Over the last couple of years, attorneys have started to share documents electronically. Marks says that has been a really great change because now attorneys can’t fight about whether materials are being provided or not. There are clear records that show if a document was provided, if it was downloaded and when it was downloaded. He says that tool is very beneficial during bigger trials.

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