Berrien County Prosecutor Steve Pierangeli gave an update on his office’s operations to the Berrien County Board of Commissioners on Thursday. Pierangeli has worked at the office for 16 years, and was just elected prosecutor. He told the board with the COVID shutdowns, the court system is facing a large backlog of cases.
“In our office and I know in indigent defense, we’re going to be ready to go as soon as the court tells us to and try to catch up on some of the cases we’re behind,” Pierangeli said. “Right now, the last I knew from the judges, we had over 275 pending felony trials, which is really an obscene amount in terms of trying to get through those cases.”
Pierangeli did note the prosecutor’s office is once again fully staffed, which should help once things are moving again. He said working with children is one of his top priorities, and he’s been talking with students about dangers like cyber bullying and sexting. Moving forward, he said he wants to talk with young people about gun violence and establish a sexual assault response team for adult victims, something that’s being worked on now.
