Dusty Boyd speaks to Exchange Club about numbers

Coryell County District Attorney Dusty Boyd recently addressed the Exchange Club of Gatesville and spoke to the group about the number of criminal cases he has witnessed prior to COVID and in the years following.

“We are driven by numbers, which is something we do at the DA’s office so that we can stay ahead in capturing the type of information we need so that we can stay ahead of the curve in criminal justice world – numbers usually dictate that,” Boyd said.

“A year and a half ago to two years ago, we had some really interesting numbers during COVID and how COVID impacted my office and how our numbers defined our successes, moving cases,” he said.

During that time, Boyd reported that his office ended up trying 20% of the entire state’s jury trials, which really wasn’t a lot, but some courts weren’t having jury trials at all.

“I’m really happy to report that, for the most part, outside some of the really bigger cases that happened during 2021, we’re pretty much caught up,” Boyd said.

During the three-to-four-year period, going back to 2019, Boyd’s office received and reviewed 902 felony cases. The following year, in 2020, that number went up slightly to 919 cases. In 2021, that number spiked to 1,154 cases, but came down a little in 2022 to 1,104.

“This is the most it’s been since I’ve been DA the last two years,” he said.

As the cases come in, Boyd reported he has five assistant DA’s, which have a certain assignment list of cases that they prosecute specializing in certain areas such as sexual assault, crimes against children, narcotics, burglary and property crimes, and DWI.

“All five of them have a list of cases that they take, and they screen,” he said.

In 2002 they opened with 1,104 cases that were submitted to his office. They opened 589 of those cases and closed 889 cases.

“As a manager of the office, what I’m always looking for — are we closing more cases than we’re opening so I can’t let the boat get upside down where we’re taking in more water than we’re pushing out,” Boyd said.

Boyd explained the reason they were able to move so many cases last year was because two years ago, the commissioners court approved a new assistant attorney, so they went from four assistant DA’s to five. Boyd said when he first became the DA 10 years ago, he only had two ADA’s and now he has five.

“What I’ve managed to see as our caseloads increase, because our intake numbers are going up, gaining new assistants help us keep pace with the percentage. In 2022, the DA’s office was able to return 339 indictments,” he said.

Boyd said they continue to work many jury trials.

“In 2019 we did a total of 20 jury trials – we had 15 guilty and three not-guilty. In 2020, where you’ll see the effect of COVID, we only did four jury trials where we had four guilty and zero not guilty,” he said. “In 2021, we started working our way back up with 13 jury trials – 10 guilty and three not-guilty, and then last year [2022], we were back up to 14 trials with twelve guilty, one not-guilty, and one mistrial.”

Boyd added the importance of a DA’s office.

“What I tell my staff all the time is that the true measurement of a DA’s office isn’t whether you win jury trials or not, that’s less than one percent of what we do every day,” Boyd said.