County to bolster court program as cases increase

A committee of Ozaukee County supervisors on Tuesday approved a plan that would expand the District Attorney Office’s Victim Witness Program to help handle its increasing workload.

The Public Safety Committee approved making the program’s vacant part-time assistant position full-time. It also would include benefits, which the job currently does not offer.

The program is down to one employee,  Coordinator Lisa Haasch, since her former assistant left last month to take a position with the state Department of Corrections.

The program provides assistance to victims and witnesses in adult and juvenile criminal cases. Responsibilities include  notifying them of court dates, escorting them to and from court, providing restitution information, helping prepare impact statements and otherwise supporting them.

Haasch said the open position was posted last month as a part-time job and she’s already received “quite a few applications,” she told the committee. “I haven’t started interviewing.”

With three courts and five prosecutors, Haasch can’t cover the needs of every victim and witness, District Attorney Ben Lindsay told the committee last month.

“It is not uncommon for two or more courts to have victim-related proceedings at the same time,” County Human Resources Director Chris McDonell said in a memo to the committee.

Since 2016, the number of cases served by the program has grown from 1,998 to 3,370 in 2025, while the size of the Victim Witness office has stayed the same for 25 years.

The severity of crimes committed in Ozaukee County also has increased. In 2001 there were 255 felony cases. Last year there were 404 and in 2024 there were 476. In addition, pre-charging obligations have increased, McDonell said.

Mandated services of the office also have increased since the Victim’s Bill of Rights, otherwise known as Marsy’s Law, was passed in April 2020 by the state Legislature.

It mandates that victims be treated with fairness, dignity and respect, ensuring their rights are enforced with equal weight to the rights of the accused.

That also has increased the office’s workload.

“Previously, victim rights were typically implicated only after a criminal case was issued and there was no obligation to contact victims until a charging decision was made.

“Marsy’s Law now requires (Victim Witness) staff to promptly identify victims on all referrals received from law enforcement and notify them of their rights even before charging. This has resulted in hundreds of additional victim contacts each year,” McDonell said.

“The numbers kind of speak for themselves,” County Administrator Jason Dzwinel told the committee.

Lindsay’s office is jointly funded by the state and Ozaukee County. The state pays the salaries and fringe benefits for the elected district attorney and assistant district attorneys, while the county funds the office’s support staff, including Haasch, operational costs and supplies.

The state reimburses the county for 55% of Haasch’s total salary and benefits and for the 26 hours, or two-thirds time, that the assistant works.

The county will not be reimbursed for the additional 14 hours the assistant will work, nor for the assistant’s benefits.

Dzwinel said the resolution approved Tuesday also will have to pass muster with the county Finance Committee and the County Board.

Haasch’s office has a budget of $162,843 this year, not counting the changes for the assistant.

The state has indicated that if staffing increases in the DA’s Office, the county would be eligible for state reimbursement for a second full-time position, McDonell wrote.

The earliest that could happen would be July next year, he added.

McDonell said a full-time victim witness specialist position would cost the county $92,436.

That would mean an additional cost to the county of $18,300 for the rest of this year and an additional $42,858 for all of next year.

Those additional dollars for next year would have to be approved through the 2026 budget process, Dzwinel said.